


The Secret

by Black_Tea_and_Bones



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex and Winn brotp, Fluff, Humour, Mild Angst, cannon typical violence and mayhem, it's not incest if one of them is an alien
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-02 07:28:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8658013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Black_Tea_and_Bones/pseuds/Black_Tea_and_Bones
Summary: Kara has a secret, Alex is in a  whole lot of denial, and Winn has no freaking idea how to fix it. Also there are giant slugs.





	1. Well, That Happened...

**Author's Note:**

> Set Loosely in Season 2, after Alex comes out, but pretty much ignoring Guardian, Hank's transformation, and more or less the rest of the cannon plotline. This will be mostly Alex, Kara and Winn, because I love his and Alex's dynamic. It's pretty much self-indulgent fluff with no redeeming features whatsoever. If you don't like the idea of romantic Alex/Kara, please go elsewhere, this fic is not for you. 
> 
> Everyone else, enjoy! :)
> 
> Edit: This was meant to be all fluff... I swear. And then the angst got into it. And about 4.5k of action scenes. And giant slugs. I don't know. I'm sorry. But there will be a happy ending!

It took four hours for Supergirl to come out of the Kryptonite enhanced anaesthesia.

  
Maxwell Lord of all people had helped with it; working with Alex and the rest of the DEO medical staff after the Black Mercy incident to synthesize a formulae that would actually allow them to operate on the girl of steel. They’d hoped never to need it, but Alex was damned glad they’d had it on hand when they had brought her in after a shoot out with Cadmus thugs, unconscious, bruised and bloody and riddled with glowing green bullet holes.

  
The surgery itself had been long and tense.

  
Alex had insisted on being in the room, gowned, gloved and masked. Useless, but there, holding Kara’s hand while the surgeons cut into her, removing every green bullet. An aide had tasked with taking them away as soon as each one fell from the forceps, clinking wetly against gleaming metal before being whisked out of the room.

  
Kara’s vitals had improved as the levels of active kryptonite in the room steadily decreased. When the last bullet was out and gone, and her wounds had been sutured, she’d been dressed in a hospital gown, wheeled to the sun room, and transferred to a slightly more comfortable bed under the sun lamps.

  
Only then had Alex been willing to leave her sister’s side, entrusting her to Winn and James while she got cleaned up and changed.

  
Her uniform was a write off. Torn and bloody from dragging Kara out of the jagged crater created by her fall, Alex doubted it was salvageable. She left it on the floor of her private bathroom, leaving herself clad only in a bra and underwear. Her own wounds were superficial. A few bruises and scrapes that she cleaned and treated with the first-aid kit mounted over the sink before wetting a towel and wiping off the worst of the rest of dust and sweat.

  
A hot shower would have been better, but that would have to wait.

  
Bracing herself against the sink, fingers digging into the cold porcelain, Alex relaxed the rigid control she’d been holding in place since Kara had been shot down, cracking open the lid of the tight little box she kept locked around her emotions when she was on a mission.

 

  
Kara had nearly died today.

  
Again.

  
Alex shuddered, catching a sob in the back of her throat at the memory of Kara lying in the bottom of that hole, blood smeared across her skin, beautiful blue eyes closed in pain.

  
Risking herself? That was just the job.

  
Risking Kara?

  
That was never going to be something Alex was okay with.

  
Moment over, Alex wiped her eyes and took a final deep breath. She might be off the clock, but there were still appearances to maintain.

  
Between Kara hurling herself into danger every time Alex let her out of her sight, her father being held god knew where by Cadmus, Hank nearly dying, and Maggie... being Maggie, there had been far too many tears lately. That needed to stop. Kara needed her.

  
She could do this.

  
Donning a clean black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, Alex made her way back to the sun room to wait for Kara to wake up.

  
James had to get back to Catco, the media company would have to release a statement about this latest battle in downtown National City. He made his apologies and left with a warm grip to Alex’s shoulder, and instructions to call him as soon as there was any news. Winn stayed, and Alex was grateful for his uncomplicated and well meaning presence.  
She had worried, back when he’d been in love with her sister, that he would let his unrequited feelings ruin the friendship Kara needed so desperately. But Winn had surprised her, getting his shit together much faster than she would have expected.

  
“She’s going to be okay, right?” Winn asked after James had closed the door behind him.

  
“Yeah.” Alex pulled a chair over to the sun bed and sat, taking Kara’s hand and weaving their fingers together. “She’s tough.”

  
Winn sagged in relief, slouching down in his own hard plastic chair. “Thank god. The nurse that came in to check on her wouldn’t tell us anything.” He made a face. “I don’t think she likes me.”

  
Alex found a smile, small but sincere. “You take a little getting used to,” she admitted. “And you’re not technically family.”

  
“Hey!” Winn was all offended dignity. “I’m Supergirl’s best friend! I should have privileges!”

  
Alex snorted. “You’re here, aren’t you?” DEO employee or not, Winn wouldn’t have been allowed this close to an injured Supergirl if Alex hadn’t known damn well how important she was to him.

  
“Oh, Right.” Winn subsided, mollified.

  
The passed the hours in relative quiet. Alex was used to waiting. Her job, whether she was in the lab, or out in the field, was largely a matter of waiting for things to happen. Getting test results or tracking down rogue aliens, both demanded a certain level of patience. Winn, on the other hand, sucked at it. He fidgeted, he pulled out his phone, jabbed at the screen for a little while, and then shoved it back into his pocket. He shuffled his feet against the floor, and shifted positions on his chair so many times that it travelled across the room, one millimeter at a time.

  
Alex eventually sent him out for coffee. It was that or kill him, and killing him would have been messy. And Kara would have pouted.

  
He came back with coffee and dinner from the DEO cafeteria, for which Alex forgave him his impatience. When they were finished and the paper plates disposed of, he pulled out a deck of cards. “Go fish?”

  
Alex won. Of course.

  
Winn was dealing out another hand when Kara finally stirred.

  
“Alex?”

  
Cards forgotten, Alex was at her side in a moment, gently pressing on her shoulders as she tried to get up. “Easy,” she murmured, her heart nearly breaking at how little effort it took to hold her down. “You’re okay, but you’re going to be woozy for a little while.”

  
“Hey there, buddy!” Winn said, coming up beside Alex. He looked like he wanted to go for a hug, but thought better of it at Alex’s warning glare. “Good to see you awake.”

  
Kara blinked up at them, blue eyes squinting and unfocused. “What happened?”

  
“Cadmus,” Alex said, simply. “You were the only major casualty,” she added, knowing that would be Kara’s next question. Damned hero complex.

  
“Seventeen kryptonite bullet wounds and a sweet crash landing!” Winn bragged, as if Kara’s injuries were some kind of high score. “Your crater was like, fifteen feet deep.”

  
“I fell?” Kara sounded offended, the remnants of the anesthesia slurring her words slightly.

  
“Yeah,” Alex admitted. “But it wasn’t exactly your fault.”

  
Kara pouted. “Why do people keep making me fall? It’s mean.”

  
Winn snickered.

  
“I’ll tell them not to do that anymore,” Alex promised, amused in spite of herself. Doped up Kara was nearly as funny as drunk Kara.

  
“You’re the best sister ever!” Kara’s wide smile was only a little lopsided. “Come here,” she said, tugging on Alex’s hand. “I have a secret.”

  
“I’m right here, Kara.”

  
“No, _here_ ,” Kara insisted, letting go of Alex’s hand to grope for her T-shirt, taking three tries to close her fingers around the fabric of her collar and pull.

  
Alex staggered, evidently there was a little super strength left in her sister. She steadied herself against the side of the sun bed, giving in to Kara’s urging and leaning over her. “What?”

  
“It’s a secret,” Kara stage whispered, eyeing Winn.

  
“I think we can trust him,” Alex assured her.

  
“Yeah, Winn’s the best!” Kara agreed with another grin. Apparently everyone was the best today. Except people that made her fall down. “Closer!” She demanded, tugging again, albeit more gently.

  
Alex sighed, leaned further down and tilted her head, assuming Kara wanted to whisper in her ear.

  
“No,” Kara protested, letting go of her shirt to take hold of her chin.

  
“Kara, what...” Alex laughed, pulling back slightly.

  
“Shhh...” Kara hushed her sternly, cutting off any further protest by sliding her hand around the back of Alex’s neck and using the leverage to pull herself up and into an open mouthed kiss.

  
Alex froze.

  
Time froze.

  
She was pretty sure the whole damned universe did a double take and dropped its jaw in an instant of pure and utter disbelief.

  
Kara was the only one in motion. High on kryptonite laced drugs she might be, but that didn’t seem to have affected her ability to kiss. If Alex could have moved, she would have pulled away, or at the very least, kept things chaste. She could have happily lived out her entire life without knowing what it felt like to have her little sister’s tongue in her mouth.

  
Not that it was _bad_ exactly...

  
Who the hell had Kara been practicing on?

  
Winn’s low whistle brought Alex back to herself as Kara hummed happily against her mouth, nipping Alex’s lower lip playfully as she let her go and relaxed back against the bed.

  
“Good secret?”

  
Alex swallowed, trying not to taste Kara on her lips.

  
This was bad.

  
So bad.

  
And if it hadn’t already been bad?

  
Alex couldn’t deny the tiny, infinitesimal, so small it was hardly worth mentioning, but still enough to make her hate herself, urge to maybe lean a little closer and try that again.

  
That.

  
That was so much worse.

  
She was a terrible human being.

  
A strangled sound that could have been agreement or argument was all she could get out.

  
Winn saved her. God bless the little man.

  
“Okay, Kara! I think you’ve had a little too much of the good drugs.” He laughed, and if it was forced, Alex couldn’t tell. Patting a still nearly frozen Alex on the shoulder, he managed to get between her and Kara, ruffling his friend’s hair and getting a whine of complaint in return.

  
“Winn!” she protested, ineffectually swatting at him. “You suck.”

  
“I thought I was the best?” he teased.

  
“The worst!”

  
“Your face is the worst!”

  
“Ugh!” Kara crossed her arms, taking a few tries to get it right. “I don’t love you anymore.”

  
“What if Alex and I go and get you some dinner?”

  
“Pizza?” Kara’s big blue eyes could have melted stone without the benefit of heat vision.

  
“I’ll see what I can do,” Winn promised, backing up and nudging Alex out of the room behind him. He pressed the call button beside the door, so they wouldn’t be leaving Kara alone.

  
“Alex, stay!” Kara begged, reaching out towards her sister.

  
Alex wavered, torn between the ever present need to take care of Kara, and pure unadulterated panic.

  
“I need Alex’s help with the pizza,” Winn covered for her, and Kara subsided grumpily.

  
“Lots of pepperoni,” she said.

  
“The most pepperoni,” Winn assured her.

  
They left as a doctor and a nurse arrived to take over babysitting the petulant superhero.

  
“Food run,” Alex managed to say. “We’ll be back in an hour or so.”

  
They nodded. “We’ll let Director Henshaw know she’s awake,” the doctor promised.

  
And then they were out. Wordlessly Alex led the way to the underground parking garage. Cafeteria Pizza was not going to be up to Kara’s standards, and Alex needed to get out of the DEO. Possibly out of the country. If getting off the planet had been an option, she would have considered it. Unfortunately Kara’s escape pod hadn’t really survived its second crash landing. So that was out.

  
They didn’t speak until they were safely inside the standard SUV. Alex gripped the wheel, knuckles white.

  
“So... “Winn said slowly. “That happened.”

  
“If you tell _anyone_...”

  
“I won’t!” Winn yelped, putting his hands up in the universal gesture of surrender. “I mean, it’s not like it meant anything, right? It was just the drugs talking... and kissing... Kara doesn’t... and you don’t...”

  
Alex just gave him a look.

  
“Do you? Does _she_?” Winn sounded like he might actually be having a heart attack in her passenger seat. “Has this happened before?”

  
“No!” Alex snapped, cutting him off with a sharp gesture.

  
“So what’s the...” He stared at her, and Alex winced as comprehension slowly dawned. “Oh. My. God....”

  
“Don’t-“

  
Winn flailed like an entire army of ants had set up shop in his underwear. “You like Kara!”

  
“Of course I like Kara, she’s my sister.”

  
“No you _like_ like Kara.”

  
“I...” Alex bit her lower lip, and then stopped immediately because it was too soon. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “There’s been... a lot, recently. I’m remembering things... It doesn’t matter.” she shook her head and started the car. “I shouldn’t be talking to you about this.”

  
“Dude,” Winn protested. “Who else are you going to talk to?”

  
“You might have a point,” Alex muttered as she steered them out of the garage and out onto the road. It was late, their headlights lighting up the desert road ahead of them. She checked the time, 22:30, it would have to be the 24 hour pizza place then.

  
“So what are you going to do?” Winn asked after a few minutes of silence.

  
Alex sighed, turning onto the highway. “I’m going to buy an obscene amount of pizza.”

  
“But...”

  
“Leave it alone, Winn.”

  
“But she...”

  
“Is _high_ ,” Alex reminded him. “She has no idea what she’s doing, and she probably won’t even remember this tomorrow.”

  
“What if she does?” Winn asked in a small voice.

  
Alex refused to deal with the even the smallest possibility that that might be something that could happen. “She won’t.”

  
Winn’s silence was suspicious, and Alex took her eyes off the road for a moment to glare at him.

  
“You’re not going to remind her, either.”

  
“But...”

  
“Winn!”

  
“Okay, okay...” Winn slumped down in his seat.

  
They drove on in silence. Alex could feel him judging her, but she ignored it. Avoidance had gotten her this far, it could get her a little bit further.


	2. The Well of Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara sobers up, Alex tries to act normal, and Winn just tries to get some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for the comments and Kudos! I'm having a lot of fun with this story, and hope to update about once a week. 
> 
> With the recent developments on the show, I'm going say this fic is set loosely after Alex has come out to Kara and Maggie, and after she and Maggie decide to be friends, but before Alex tells anyone else, and before any further Sanvers developments. In this universe, Maggie sticks to being there for Alex as a friend, and Alex accepts it and moves on. 
> 
> I actually really like the way the show is handling Sanvers, and I love the pairing, but we're getting all that in canon, so I'm going to enjoy playing in my Kalex sandbox. :)

Kara woke up feeling like she’d been trampled by the entire population of National City.

Twice.

With a few extra kicks to her head, just for fun.

She didn’t like to think of herself as the kind of person who whimpered. Superheroes weren’t supposed to whimper. Exactly how a superhero was _supposed_ to express the feeling of being twice trampled, and then kicked gratuitously, she didn’t know. But it was definitely not by whimpering.

She whimpered anyway.

Opening her eyes was an effort, and also clearly a mistake.  

“Ugh....”

Kara pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. Bad sun lamps. Very bad sun lamps.

“Good Morning.” Hank’s warm and gravelly voice held more than a hint of humour at her expense.

“Bad morning,” Kara whined without uncovering her eyes. “Tell it I hate it.”

“Not quite your usual sunny self, I see.”

Kara heard him moving around the room, the clink of glass and the sound of running water making her realize how very thirsty she was. Carefully uncovering one eye, she squinted in his direction, making an uncoordinated grab for the cup in his hand.

“Hey, let’s get you sitting up first,” Hank cautioned, holding it up out of her reach while he helped her swing her legs over the side of the bed and sit up. “Slowly,” he cautioned, handing it over once she was steady.

The water tasted heavenly, and once the cup was drained, Kara felt a great deal more like herself. She held it out for a refill, and sipped that one while her eyes adjusted, easing the pounding in her head. Still, something was missing... “Where’s Alex?”

“Agent Danvers went home about an hour ago,” Hank said, leaning back against the bed beside her. “She and Mr. Schott were here with you all night. I believe there was a great deal of pizza involved.”

“Oh.” Kara frowned. “I don’t remember.”

Hank shrugged. “You were in and out of consciousness. With the amount of kryptonite you had in your system, I’m surprised you remembered your own name.”

“Is that why I feel this terrible?”

Hank nodded. “You took a lot of damage, Supergirl; both from the enemy artillery and the fall. You’re stabilized now, but we had to pump you full of that special Kryptonian anaesthesia your sister and Mr. Lord cooked up in order to cut the bullets out, so you’re going to have a bit of a hangover.”

“My powers?”

“Suppressed by the drugs. You’re healing, and you’re not quite down to human levels, but it’ll take a few days for your system to completely clear.”  

“Great...” Kara put the cup down on table beside the bed and stood up carefully. Her knees felt like jello, but she managed to stay vertical. “Guess I have to take the slow way home.”

Hank glanced pointedly down at her paper gown. “You might want to change first.”

*****

Of course it wasn’t that easy. First the doctors put her through a battery of questions and test to make sure she was well enough to go, and then she had to wait until someone was available to drive her, because flying was out of the question, and Kara was absolutely not up for public transit right now.

At least it was Saturday, and she didn’t have to worry about going to work tomorrow.

Finally Vasquez found her a set of standard issue sweats and a tank top in her size, and drove her home around three in the afternoon. It was weird, being escorted to her apartment as if it was a military operation. Kara liked Vasquez, but Alex was always the one who took care of her after an injury. It wasn’t like her not to stick around.

Had something happened last night? Kara wished she could remember. Hank hadn’t seemed to think anything was wrong, and she knew Alex would never blame her for anything she might have said or done under the influence, but she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there was a reason her sister had left before Kara sobered up.

There was nothing quite like the frustration of feeling guilty for something she couldn’t remember doing.

Of course this could all be nothing, and she might not have done anything to feel guilty about at all.

Maybe Alex had just been tired? Rao knew the beds at the DEO weren’t exactly comfortable, and Alex had been in that fight too. Someone would have said something if Alex had been injured, right?

Great... now she felt guilty _and_ worried!

Wait, hadn’t Hank said that Winn had been there all night with them?

Kara Pulled out her phone and sent a quick message to Winn.

_Did I say anything stupid last night?_

While she waited for a reply, Kara swapped the sweats for her favourite pyjamas, put the leftover pizza from the DEO on a plate, poured herself a glass of milk, and got comfortable on the couch.  All at normal human speed, which still left her exhausted and a little dizzy. When the room finally stopped spinning, she switched on the TV and stuffed a piece of pizza in her mouth. She might feel like crap, but she’d have to be dead and buried to lose her appetite.

After about twenty minutes of channel surfing, and two pieces of pizza, her phone finally chimed.

_No!_

_You didn’t do anything!_

_Or say anything!_

_At all!_

_It was very quiet._

Then,

_How R U?_

Kara replied with the sickly green emoticon with the thermometer and the icepack. _Is Alex okay?_

_Alex is fine! Why wouldn’t Alex be fine? She’s fine! Everyone is fine!!_

Well, that was suspicious.

_I haven’t heard from her._

_Oh._ Winn replied, thankfully without any exclamation marks this time. _She was really tired._

A pause, and then...

_Do U need anything?_

_No, thanks. Go back to sleep._

Winn sent her a thumbs-up. Kara tossed her phone onto the couch beside her and grabbed a couple of pillows to snuggle with, pressing her cheek into the rough paisley fabric. Something was up. Winn was being weirdly exclamatory, which usually meant he was hiding something, and Winn was nearly as bad at keeping secrets as she was. So if he didn’t call back within the next five minutes with a confession, then whatever it was he was hiding, he was probably hiding it for someone else.

Kara side-eyed her phone, waiting for it to ring.

It didn’t.

Okay, there were only a handful of people who could bully Winn into trying to keep a secret from Kara. And only one of them had been with him all night.

So, the only real question was, what the heck had Kara said or done to Alex?

Or maybe she’d said something embarrassing about herself?

No, Alex was protective, but there were limits. They _were_ sisters after all. If Kara had blurted out some humiliating secret, Alex might have sworn _Winn_ to secrecy, but she also wouldn’t have been able to resist teasing Kara about her inability to hold her kryptonite laced drugs.

Kara wracked her poor battered brain, scrunching up her nose as if that would help her think, but there was nothing. She remembered the fight, remembered getting shot, and she even vaguely remembered the crash, but everything between that and waking up this morning was a complete blank.

What if it been something about Maggie?

Oh, no... had she outed Alex?

It would explain why she left... and why Winn was acting weird...

Ooohh... This was bad. Kara groaned into her pillow, pulling her knees up and curling tightly around the sinking feeling in her stomach. Alex had finally trusted her with a secret, and not just any secret, but something Alex had never talked to anyone in her family about, and Kara had blown it! Crap, Crap, Crap! She was the worst sister ever!

Fumbling for her phone, and forgetting Alex was probably asleep, Kara started filling a text box with an endless string of _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry..._ hitting send every dozen or so.

The phone started ringing after the first seven batches.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-“

“Kara, Stop!” Alex cut her off.

Kara stopped.

Alex waited a moment to make sure she was done. “Thank you. Now _what_ exactly are you apologizing for?”

“DidItellWinnyouweregaywhileIwashighonkrytonitedrugs?” Kara blurted, her voice going all squeaky at the end, the way it did when she was upset.

“What?” Alex sounded honestly surprised. “No, you didn’t. Though, for the record, I think he already knows something about that.”

“Oh...” Kara breathed a sigh of relief, reminding herself to ask about _that_ little tidbit of information later. “Did I tell anyone else?”

Alex sighed. “No, Kara. You didn’t tell anyone. What brought this on?”

“You weren’t there when I woke up,” Kara mumbled into the phone. “Vasquez had to take me home, and then Winn was being all weird and shifty, and I couldn’t remember anything, So I thought I must have done or said something awful... and that was the worst thing I could think of, because you told me about Maggie in confidence and I-“ She took a deep breath, trying to rein in the babbling. “You’re always there when I’m hurt, so I thought.... maybe there was a reason you weren’t. I’m sorry, I’m not really thinking very clearly right now. ”

“Kara...” Alex cleared her throat and Kara could tell she was choosing her words carefully. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. You were in and out of it all night, and other than trading insults with Winn that a four year old would have been ashamed of, you didn’t do or say anything wrong. I thought you were really awake when I said goodbye,” she added. “Or I wouldn’t have left. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, no, no!” Kara rushed in to head that off, waving a hand in the air, forgetting for a moment that  Alex couldn’t actually see her. “Don’t apologize! I just feel so awful, and my head hurts, and my _everything_ hurts, and the Pizza is all gone, and I... I just miss you,” she finished lamely.

There was a longer pause this time.

“Do you want me to come over?”

“No?”

Kara was a horrible, horrible sister, and she could practically _see_ Alex rolling her eyes.

“I’ll be there in half an hour.”

*****

Alex stopped for takeout and donuts on the way.

The extra calories would help with Kara’s kryptonite hangover, and as an added bonus, Kara was always much less suspicious when her mouth was full.

Of course Alex wouldn’t need to worry about a suspicious Kara if it weren’t for Winn. Of all of the people who could have seen Kara kiss her, why couldn’t it have been someone who knew how to keep a secret? Or even someone just a little less nosy. Like James, or Vasquez. James was just self-centered enough to have literally zero curiosity about anything that didn’t directly affect him,  and a good enough guy to keep what he _did_ notice to himself,  and Vasquez was the most discreet person Alex had ever met.

Neither of them would have suggested... what Winn had suggested.

Certainly not to her face.

If Winn had just kept his mouth shut, Alex could have blamed her reaction on shock, or exhaustion, or lingering Maggie-related confusion. Anything but...that. That thing that was definitely not a thing, because it couldn’t be a thing.  Alex wouldn’t let it be a thing.

Okay, so maybe High School sleepovers with her best friend weren’t the only memories Alex had been revaluating... and maybe Kara’s kiss had brought up a few she’d forgotten, but that didn’t mean she had to do anything about it. What was it that Maggie had said? Her feelings were going to be all heightened and sparkly for a while? That’s all this was. It would go away.  She just had to act normal until it did.

The door was unlocked when Alex got to Kara’s apartment, and she found her sister curled up on the couch, staring mournfully at her empty plate.

“The fluffy cloud pyjamas,” Alex observed, setting the takeout on the counter. “You really aren’t feeling well.”

“Remember when that drink at the bar made me feel floaty?” Kara asked, dragging herself to her feet and shuffling over to investigate the bags.

Alex nodded.

“Well this is the opposite. I feel sinky.”

“Sinky?” In spite of everything, Alex couldn’t help the smile tugging on the corner of her mouth. “That’s the best adjective you can come up with?”

“Shut up and give me the pot stickers.”

Not thinking, Alex held them over her head. “Not until I’ve gotten my half.”

“Alex...” Kara whined, making a half-hearted attempt to pull Alex’s arm down before giving up and just leaning against her shoulder.  “You’re so mean...” she muttered, tugging on Alex’s shirt, her fingers just barely grazing a hint of skin.

Flinching back from the touch, innocent as it was, Alex nearly dropped the pot stickers, fumbling to catch them and shove them at Kara like a savoury shield. “Fine, here! You’ll just pout until you get them all anyway.”

Thankfully, Kara didn’t question Alex’s unusually easy surrender, smirking and muttering something about “the precious” as she juggled the pot stickers and a few other choice boxes back to the couch.

So much for acting normal... Alex took a deep, steadying breath, put what was left of the take out on a plate, took a couple of forks out of the drawer, and followed.  Sitting down at the other end of the couch, she arranged her dinner on the coffee table, safely out of reach of casual thievery, and handed Kara one of the forks.

Normal. She could do normal.

“So, other than _sinky_ , how are you feeling? Any double vision? Nausea? Trouble breathing? Chest pain?”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Do we have to do this? The doctors gave me the all clear this morning. Even Hank said I was fine.”

“Hank isn’t a doctor.”

“Technically, neither are you. Not that kind of doctor.”

“Just answer the questions, Kara.”

Kara sighed, but answered dutifully enough between bites. “A little blurry, some this morning, no, and no. How about you?”

“Just scrapes and bruises.” Alex shrugged. “Nothing serious.” Shifting closer on the couch she pulled a little pen light out of her pocket and switched it on. “Look here.”

“I’m eating!”

“Kara...”

“Fine!” Kara looked obediently into the light, then followed Alex’s finger back and forth. “You know, if you’d wanted to do your own exam you could have been there this morning when everyone else was poking and prodding...”

Ignoring Kara’s pout, and her own twinge of guilt, Alex switched off the light and put it away. “Your pupillary reaction is a little slow, but that’s probably just the drugs. Call me if you’re still having vision problems tomorrow.”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Kara shook her head, picking up Alex’s plate and shoving it back into her hands. “You abandoned me once already. I demand a sleepover.”

Alex clutched reflexively at the plate, trying desperately to come up with an excuse Kara would believe for why that couldn’t happen. Somehow she didn’t think ‘because I’m very confused about sleepovers right now,’ would cut it. What would normal Alex do?

“Okay,” right?

Kara beamed, and Alex tried to ignore the decidedly _not_ normal swoop of her stomach, covering it up by jamming a forkful of food into her mouth.

Yep. Normal had nothing on her.

*****

After two movies and a Game of thrones triad, Alex tried to take the couch, which actually was normal, because she always tried to take the couch. Sometimes Kara let it go, but tonight she wasn’t having any of Alex’s bullshit, shoving her towards the bedroom with just a hint of her Supergirl strength.

“You’re bruised, and my head still hurts. Don’t argue with me.”

So they shared the bed, and it was normal, right up until Alex woke up in the middle of the night with Kara curled up against her, head on her shoulder, and one hand resting on her stomach, fingers warm against Alex’s skin where her shirt had ridden up.

And even that might have been fine. They’d cuddled before. Sisters cuddled. But just as Alex was telling herself that, Kara murmured something unintelligible and snuggled closer, pushing her shirt up into dangerously un-sisterly territory, and brushing her lips against Alex’s throat.

There was no well of denial deep enough to submerge the subsequent flush of heat Alex felt from head to toe, and most particularly in a few regions in between. There was no definition of normal that included the urge to tip her head down and press her mouth to those lips.

Basically, Alex was screwed.

Which meant there was only one thing to do.

Alex slipped carefully out from under Kara and snuck out of the bedroom. Her pants were folded on the couch and she pulled them on in the dark. She grabbed her purse and her phone from the counter and opened the door as quietly as she could, pulling it closed behind her.

She was dialling Winn’s number before she even reached the elevator.

“Hey, Winn- yes, I know what time it is. No, I don’t care. Well, make a pot of coffee and put some pants on. I’m coming over.”


	3. Coffee and Scones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara is grumpy, Alex looks back, and Winn is the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another one! Thank you all so much for the new comments and Kudos, I love seeing what you're thinking of this silly little thing so far. 
> 
> This chapter has a bit more angst, but hopefully it's entertaining angst.
> 
> I'm really hoping to get this done in six chapters, so we're about halfway through, and I'm toying with two follow-up stories entitled "The negotiation" and "The confession." But there will be a resolution in this first part, so don't worry. 
> 
> I'm also working on a separate fic for Alex and Kara, a little darker, a little more complex, but we'll have to see how this one goes first. :) 
> 
> Happy reading!

Alex nearly talked herself out of it.

There was a moment, when the light at the end of Kara’s street turned green, where she could have gone left, to Winn’s, or right, back to her own apartment and the bottle of whiskey that she kept on hand for just this kind of situation. Not that she found herself in this kind of situation often, or ever,  but there _were_ nights, more so lately, when being the perfect Alex Danvers was just too damned hard, and failure tasted sweeter at the bottom of a glass.

She never got drunk. That part of her life was done. Losing control... that was no longer an option. She had Kara to worry about, and Hank, and the DEO, and a growing number of friends, and they were all counting on her in one way or another. Alex would never have forgiven herself if she ever truly let any of them down. Even Maggie, and the havoc she had wrought on Alex’s very definition of herself, hadn’t threatened that resolve. Alex couldn’t deny that there had been a general increase in her alcohol consumption for a week or two when Maggie had entered her life, but it had rarely gone beyond a second drink, and never a third. The closest she had come to breaking in recent memory was the first thanksgiving after Kara had become Supergirl, and Eliza had blamed it on Alex. The possibility of disappointing her mother was still the only fear she didn’t want to face sober.

Or so she had thought.

This thing with Kara... It was more than questioning her sexuality, more than being afraid of letting her sister down, or even losing her... it was all of those and more, and Alex was terrified that if she went home alone, one glass, or even three, wouldn’t be enough.

So she turned left.

Winn’s building was small, but clean and well kept, not unlike the man himself. He buzzed her in when she tapped in his code, and mindful of the late hour, Alex texted instead of knocking when she reached his door.

“How did you even know where I live?” Winn muttered, waving her in with a yawn. He’d managed to put on pants, if flannel superman PJ’s counted as pants, something Alex wasn’t going to argue at 2am, though other than that he didn’t look like he’d done much more than run a hand through his hair since she’d called.

“We’re DEO Winn, we know everything.”

Winn just grunted, shutting the door behind her before shuffling to the kitchen side of the main room, and pouring the coffee. “Remind me to be terrified by that in the morning.”  He offered her a mug. “Here. Sit.”

 Alex took the mug and looked around for a place to sit. The little table in the kitchen was home to no less than three laptops and piles of electronic equipment that were probably organized in some fashion recognizable to other like-minded computer geeks, but to Alex just looked like a mess. The rest of the living space was dominated by the large flat screen television taking up most of the wall across from a matching set of black leather recliners, one of which appeared to be doubling as a laundry basket. There was a low coffee table covered with take-out menus and the remaining wall space was dedicated to shelves of DVD’s, comics, and action figures.

 It was exactly what Alex would have imagined if she had ever thought about Winn’s apartment.

She took the laundry-free recliner, folding her legs up and resting her mug against her knees. Curling forward and inhaling the rich and slightly bitter smell of the coffee, she felt herself settle, just a little. This was a safe place. In spite of the clutter and shameless geekery, or maybe because of it, it felt like a home in a way Alex’s never had.

Not that Alex hadn’t spent considerable time, money and effort on personalizing her own apartment. She had. She loved everything about it. Except being there.                                                                   

Winn ignored the other chair in favour of pushing aside a few of the take-out menus and sitting down on the edge of the coffee table across from Alex. “So... you wanted to talk.”

Alex shrugged, looking down at her fingers wrapped around her mug. It was blue, with a familiar red and gold crest on the side, and of course that’s the mug Winn would have given her. Tracing the “S” with her thumb, she tried to find words, any words, but now that she was here, she didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t really thought about it. Getting away from Kara, and not going home, had been her primary objectives.

Winn seemed to understand. “How about I ask a few questions,” he offered. “And, if you want, you can answer them, and we’ll go from there. Sound good?”

Alex nodded.

“Okay, so you’re obviously pretty freaked out if you’re running over here at two in the morning, so I’m guessing something happened between yesterday morning and about half an hour ago. Were you at Kara’s?”

Another nod.

“Does she remember what happened?”

Alex shook her head. “No, but she knows something’s up.”

Winn winced. “That’s probably my fault. I might have overcompensated a little.”

 “Yeah, well I’m the one that chickened out and ran away before she sobered up,” Alex admitted. “That was probably the biggest clue.”

“But you went to see her?”

“She needed me...” Alex didn’t know how else to explain it. Kara had needed her. Nothing short of death would keep Alex from coming when Kara called. And even then... if anything could have pulled her out of her grave, it would have been that.

“So, what are you doing here...”

Alex took a deep breath, fingers tightening on her mug. She could do this. She had to. Keeping it bottled inside was clearly not working for her, not anymore anyway. It had worked just fine for about eight years, give or take, but a few weeks of soul searching and one drugged kiss had brought it all back, and Alex just didn’t have it in her to shove it all down again. She couldn’t do that to herself, not anymore.

“You asked, before, if anything like this had happened... if this was the first time...It was, but it wasn’t the first time it _might_ have happened.”

Winn looked confused. “Might have?”

“There was a... moment? I think... the night before I left for college. We snuck out after mom went to bed, drank a bottle of her wine in the back yard.” Alex couldn’t remember what they’d talked about, nothing important. She’d been warm and glowing from the wine, and while alcohol couldn’t affect Kara, her little sister had been giddy with the thrill of theft and being out after curfew. “And then...” this was the memory that Alex had been trying very hard to forget about for nearly a decade. “Kara took me flying.”

When they were kids, flying with Kara had been fun. Exhilerating even, who wouldn’t love to fly? But five years later... “Kara says flying feels like the moment before you kiss someone for the first time.” Alex could have laughed at the sheer inadequacy of that description. “I don’t know if that’s why... after we landed, I looked at her, and...” They had touched down at the edge of the bluff, still holding on to each other, the rising sun turning Kara’s golden hair into a halo, and something... the flight, the wine, or just Kara, looking at her, _holding_ her, like she was the most precious thing on earth, and Alex was _leaving,_ had overwhelmed her. “I didn’t want to let go... I would have stayed, forever, if she asked me to.”

“But she didn’t...” Winn’s voice was soft, his eyes wide.

“No,” Alex couldn’t hide the catch to her voice. “I thought she wanted to, but maybe I was wrong.” Kara had pulled her closer, and for a moment, Alex had thought...  but then she stopped, lifting her head suddenly, as if listening to something in the distance. Alex’s alarm, she’d explained, when Alex asked. The one she’d set before they left. Eliza would be up soon, and then it would be time to leave. The thought of her mother had made Alex pull away, suddenly ashamed, and Kara had let her go.  

“I left for school, and I didn’t come home for three months. By then, she had a boyfriend, and I... I forgot about it, or convinced myself I did. Nothing actually happened, and she never said anything, so we just, pretended it never happened, or _I_ pretended. I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t... that, to her.”

“Then why did she kiss you?” Winn pointed out.

“Drugs?”

Winn shook his head. “She said it was a secret... like it was something she’d been holding on to. Maybe she-”

“Don’t!” Alex stood up, retreating to the kitchen to dump out her mug, rinsing out the dregs of coffee, and placing it carefully on the counter before turning around and leaning back against the sink. “I can’t... Kara is straight, and my _sister_ , and this isn’t happening.”

“Then why tell me all of this!” Winn nearly spilled his own coffee in his frustration.  “Why tell me, and then act like it doesn’t matter, like it doesn’t change anything?”

“Because I’ll lose her!” Alex swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat. “I’ll lose her,” she whispered. “And I can’t risk-” Fuck... her eyes began to burn, and she squeezed them shut, desperate not to cry, not again.

“No, no! Don’t cry! I’m sorry! I’ll shut up now!” Winn sounded about thirty seconds away from a heart attack.

Alex opened her eyes to see him hovering awkwardly with a box of Kleenex in one hand and a glass of water in the other, and then suddenly she was laughing through her tears. “You idiot,” she said, taking them both and putting them on the counter behind her. “Come here.” She pulled him into a hug, still chuckling. He was stiff for a moment, but once he got over the shock, he wrapped her up in one of the best hugs she’d ever had.  “I’m beginning to understand what Kara sees in you,” she murmured against his shoulder. “You’re a good friend, Winn.”

“I should hope so!” He gave her one last squeeze before releasing her. “You going to be okay?”

“Yeah.” Alex eased back. “I think so.”

He looked like he wanted to say something else, they still hadn’t really talked about why she’d bolted from Kara’s apartment, but Alex’s phone rang, ending the moment. She stepped around him to answer it. “Danvers... Hey, Maggie. There’s a _what?_ _Where?_ Yeah I can see the problem. Okay I can be downtown in...” she checked her watch. It was still too early for traffic. “Fifteen minutes. See you there. Bye.”

“Duty calls?”

Alex nodded. “Really big alien in the subway tunnels. Apparently it’s not aggressive, but it won’t get off the tracks. Maggie thinks it might be drunk.”

Winn snorted. “Sounds like fun.”

“So long as it doesn’t throw up on me like the last one...” Alex shuddered. “Winn, could you...” she tucked her phone back in her pocket and put on her best ‘asking for a favour’ face. “It’s just that I promised Kara a sleepover, and she’s going to wake up alone in the apartment...”

Winn dragged his hands down over his face. “I am never going to get any sleep...” he groaned as he headed for the laundry chair and began rifling through the pile.

“Is that a yes?”

“That’s a ‘get your ass to the subway tunnels, Agent Danvers.’ I’ll go take care of Kara, and tell her you got called in.”

“You won’t say anything...”

Winn threw a balled up sock at her, which Alex dodged neatly. Taking that as her cue to exit, she left him to get dressed, and headed out the door.

Nothing had been solved. The situation was still impossible, and terrifying, but somehow sharing it with Winn had made it, well, not _better_ exactly, but a hell of a lot less lonely.

*****

Kara couldn’t believe Alex had left her to wake up alone twice in two days. There better be a good excuse this time, or there was going to be a reckoning. Huddled grumpily under the blankets, still almost powerless and feeling achy, if not nearly as bad as yesterday, Kara didn’t notice there was someone else in the apartment until she heard a crash from the kitchen.

Alex?

Instinctively trying for super speed, and only managing to get tangled in her bed sheets, Kara ended up falling on her butt on the floor.

“Ow!” she grumbled, unwinding her feet from the twisted fabric. This whole feeling pain thing really, really sucked. Finally getting to her feet, she grabbed her glasses, shoving them on her face, and padded out to the kitchen, hoping to see Alex, but finding Winn instead of her sister, standing by the counter with a spatula in one hand, a cook book open on the counter, and what looked like her entire cupboard of pans on the floor around him.

“Umm... Morning?” He tried.

“What are you doing here?” Kara growled.

“Making breakfast?”

Kara rubbed her eyes. Gritty sleep eyes, yet another terrible thing about being almost human. “Did I know you were coming over?”

“Nope!” Seeming to realize he looked ridiculous wielding a spatula like a sword, Winn put it down and started picking up the pots. “Alex got called in to work, so she asked me to come and check on you.”                                          

“Oh...” That was a passable excuse. But still, Alex could have woken her up and said goodbye. Maybe she was useless without her powers, but Kara still would have liked to be kept in the loop. She just hoped this was Alex being overprotective and wanting her to get as much sleep as possible and not Alex avoiding her. “Noonans?”

“Thank god!” Winn slammed the cook book shut. “I don’t think I know how to make breakfast beyond pouring a bowl of cereal.”

“Give me ten minutes.”

Twenty minutes later they had a table and a basket of scones to nibble on while they waited for their breakfast and Kara was experiencing the joys of coffee on the nearly human nervous system. “This is amazing...” With the caffeine zinging through her, she felt almost normal. “I need an alien strength version of this.”

“I’m sure Alex could cook something up for you in her lab,” Winn suggested, buttering a scone.

“Speaking of Alex...” Kara casually stole half of Winn’s scone. “What else did she say when you talked to her?”

“Talked to her?” Winn’s knife froze in the butter. “We didn’t talk! It was a simple exchange of information. It wasn’t even talking; it was a text, not talking at all!” He paused. “That was really incriminating, wasn’t it?”

Kara nodded, taking a bite of her pilfered scone.

Winn put the knife down, leaning forward over the table, and taking one of Kara’s hands. “Look, I’m not going to say anything, I’m not even saying this, because officially, there’s nothing to say. But if you’re worried, you should talk to her.” He gave her hand a squeeze, and released her, going back to the remaining half of his scone.

Kara swallowed, but the scone tasted like ash. She’d _known_ there was something, and Alex had lied to her face about it. Not that it was the first time... Alex had worked for the DEO for _years_ before Kara had found out about it. But that hadn’t been personal, or it had, because of the alien thing, but Alex had just been trying to protect her... which now that she thought about it, was the only reason Alex ever lied to her, which meant that this was also probably about protecting her.

Darn it! Just when she was getting her mad on. She hated how it was nearly impossible to stay angry at Alex.

She took another bite, determined to enjoy it, and they filled the rest of their breakfast with small talk. Kara knew she could probably force Winn to talk, but whatever this was, she wanted to hear it from _Alex_ , not second hand from her best friend.

Winn gave her a hug goodbye, and they parted ways on the sidewalk outside of Noonans. Kara pulled out her phone and tapped out a quick message to Alex, avoiding scary words like ‘talk’ and ‘things I might have said under the influence,’ writing simply, “Sister’s night?”

She never got a reply.   

*****

Alex was just packing up after the removal of the inebriated slug-like alien from the subway tunnel, a story that wouldn’t ever be getting told if she had anything to say about it, her boots were never going to be the same, when she got the text from Kara.

“Sister’s night?”

It was bright and cheerful, nothing weird or ominous about it. No indication that anything was wrong. It certainly wasn’t ‘we need to talk,’ but Alex still felt her stomach sink. It was the first word, _sisters_... Even if Kara never suspected anything, Alex was going to have to figure out how she was going to handle this. Preferably before seeing Kara again.

 There was still the faintest hope, that she was wrong about her feelings. That this could still be a weird, unexpected fallout from realizing she was gay. Maybe kissing any girl was going to feel special and amazing right now, and she was just confusing herself with old memories. She worked for the DEO, she knew how faulty human memory could be. It was a long shot, but Alex was willing to cling to any possibility right now.

“You okay, Danvers?” Maggie clasped her shoulder. “You look spooked.”

“I’m fine...” Alex put her phone away without answering. “Just trying to figure something out.”

“Anything I can help with?”

Alex was about to brush her off, when she reconsidered. If anyone could give her insight into the trials and tribulations of gay awakenings, it was Maggie. She would know how to figure this out. “Yeah, actually. You free tonight?”

Maggie grinned. “Sure, meet you at the bar at eight?”

“I’ll be there,” Alex promised, already planning how to phrase her problem in a way that didn’t mention sisters, or superheroes.

This was going to be an interesting night.                                                                  


	4. A detective and a Secret Agent Walk Into a Bar...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex makes poor life decisions, Kara gets a clue, and Winn fears for his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for the kind comments and kudos! Two chapters left to go, though given the nearness of the holidays, they may take longer than a week respectively. 
> 
> This was a really fun chapter to write, so I hope you all enjoy it!

It was a quiet night. The music was low and smooth, one woman on a keyboard tucked into the corner of the room. The regulars kept up a hum of conversation, accompanied by the dull sound of glasses against the wooden bar and the sharp click and snap of a break from the pool table.

No one else from the DEO had come in, for which Alex was profoundly grateful. She wasn’t up for small talk tonight. A beer in each hand, she made her way back to the little booth against the wall where she’d left Maggie. The cop was stunning as usual, in fitted jeans and a black t-shirt under her leather jacket, but for once Alex wasn’t thinking about her that way. She’d _noticed_ of course. She was still very, very gay, but for the first time, she honestly thought they might have a shot at making this friends thing work.

Of course, the flip side was that Alex had gone and gotten herself involved in an even more impossibly complicated romantic entanglement, but if there was a silver lining here, this was it.

Alex slid into the booth, pushing Maggie’s beer over to her, and tipping back a third of her own in one long smooth draught.

“Thanks.” Maggie’s voice was warm and a little rough, and usually it would have done _things_ to Alex, but tonight it was just nice. “So, where were we?”

Alex set the bottle back down, running her fingers down the sides and collecting the little droplets of condensation against her skin. She’d already given Maggie the bare bones of the situation, using her old friend Vicky instead of Kara, and substituting ‘high on kryptonite-laced narcotics,’ with ‘black out drunk.’

“I guess I’m just wondering... what are the odds that I’m only feeling this way because...” Alex trailed off, not quite sure how to word it.

“She’s the first girl to hit on you since you came out?” Maggie offered.

“Yeah.” That about summed it up.

Maggie shrugged. “It happens, but that doesn’t mean that’s what this is. If you had a thing for her back in High School, there was probably a reason. Is she even gay?”

Good question. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it. I mean we have, obviously, I told her... about me...and she was great, but she never said anything about herself. I mean, she’s had boyfriends, but so have I.”

Maggie looked thoughtful. “So what’s holding you back from just asking her? I mean, I know you said she doesn’t remember kissing you, but is there a reason you can’t tell her what happened, and see what she says?”

 So many reasons... Alex winced and downed another third of her beer. That was pretty much the last conversation she wanted to have with Kara, ever... which reminded her about the unanswered text on her phone; yet another source of guilt. She’d tried to answer it half a dozen times, but every excuse felt like a lie. Because “I can’t” was really “I’m afraid,” and Alex hated lying to her sister.  She promised herself that she’d apologize to Kara tomorrow.

“I don’t want to make things weird...” That at least was true, if a bit of an understatement.

“But aren’t they already weird?” Maggie leaned forward and gently touched the back of Alex’s hand. “If this girl knows you at all, she’s going to realize that something is wrong pretty quickly. So you can keep avoiding her, lie about it, or tell the truth and hope for the best. Whichever you choose, there’s going to be a risk, but if it was me, I’d rather take a chance on the truth. Lies always come back to bite you on the ass, and avoiding her is only going to make it worse in the long run.”

It was good advice, and even if Maggie had all the information, Alex was pretty sure she’d say the same damned thing.

“What if...” Alex took a deep breath. “What if this isn’t real? I’d be ruining our friendship over something that might just go away on its own.”

“You might,” Maggie agreed. “But if it _is_ real, you might be throwing away something amazing.” She took Alex’s hands in her own, uncurling her fingers, and giving them a reassuring squeeze. “Close your eyes.” She waited, one eyebrow raised, as if in a dare, and Alex huffed, but obeyed. “Now, picture her, what do you feel?”

“Terrified,” Alex breathed.

Maggie chuckled. “Beyond the obvious,” she admonished. “Imagine taking her out for dinner, walking her home, maybe a goodnight kiss? Even grocery shopping and arguing about whose turn it is to take out the garbage, because I may have only known you for a few months, Danvers, but you are definitely girlfriend material. Now, how does it feel?”

 Alex pictured dinner with Kara, not Pizza and Pot Stickers on the couch, but a real dinner, at a nice restaurant. She imagined Kara in the green dress she’d loaned her from the DEO back when she’d still been Cat Grant’s assistant, with her hair down, but still wearing her glasses, because Alex had always thought they were adorable. It was easier than she’d thought it would be. The conversation would be light, but genuine, and she could see the way Kara’s nose would crinkle when she laughed. They would drive home instead of walk, because Kara was in heels, But Alex would walk her up to the apartment, and there would be a moment... like that moment on the bluff eight years ago, but this time Alex would be the one to lean in...

And there it was... Alex reclaimed one of her hands to pour the last of the beer down her suddenly dry throat. She felt herself flush, ducking her head to avoid Maggie’s knowing smirk.

“Real?”

“I think... yeah,” Alex admitted, gripping the edge of the table hard enough to hurt. She was so very, very screwed. This wasn’t just physical... She actually wanted to _date_ Kara. She wanted the dinner, and the dress, and _god_ , even the grocery shopping and bickering over chores. And it wasn’t something she was going to be able to hide... not from her sister.

“Can we...” Alex took a breath. She wasn’t on call, Kara was safe at home, there was no immediate threat from Cadmus... if there was ever a time to break her rule, this was probably it. “Can we just drink now? I think I need to drink. A lot.”

“Sure, anything you need, and hey, this round’s on me.”

Maggie was as good as her word. They shelved the difficult topics, and Maggie did her best to distract Alex with crazy work stories, and lame jokes, both of which got better as the night went on. They played a bit of pool, and Maggie, who was still on her second beer when Alex finished her fifth, actually won a game for once. There was a fair bit of gloating, and betting, though neither of them made any real effort to collect. Alex was racking up the balls for their next game, and having a bit of trouble with it, the balls kept _blurring_ when Maggie’s phone rang.

“Sawyer? Seriously? That’s crap Miller, I’m not even on call. He did what!? You are going to owe me so big... fine. See you in ten.” Maggie hung up the phone with a sharp jab of her thumb. “Damnit!”

“Problem?”

“Yeah... looks like I have to cut our evening short .” Maggie looked ready to murder someone. “You gonna be okay?”

“Ppff!” Alex waved off Maggie’s concern. “I’m fine!”

Maggie looked doubtful. “You’re about a half a glass away from being drunk off your ass, Danvers. I’m not leaving you here alone.” She held out a hand. “Give me your phone.”

“Why?” Alex asked, suspicious.

“Because I’m going to call your sister.”

“Nooo!” That was a terrible, terrible idea. Alex held her phone tight against her chest. “Kara is... sick,” yes, that wasn’t even completely a lie.

“You got someone else you can call?”

 Alex tried to think through haze of alcohol... “Yeah, I know a guy.”

Winn was going to be so pissed...

*****

Kara wanted to wait until Alex was ready to talk, she really did.

But lately, an unanswered text had at least a fifty-fifty chance of being the first clue that one of them was either unconscious, possessed by some kind of mind altering device/substance, or locked up by whichever bad guy was currently making their lives difficult.

 Sometimes Kara missed the pre-Supergirl days, when her biggest emergency was not having anything to wear on a blind date.

So she called the DEO headquarters, just to make sure Alex was alive, and not possessed, or chained up in a pit. She talked to Vasquez, who listened patiently to Kara’s long and rambling explanation of the above, and very politely did not laugh at her, even though Kara was pretty sure she wanted to. Seriously, did no one else notice how often they were in peril? It was a valid concern.

Vasquez assured her that Alex had checked in after the Subway Slug incident that morning, informed them she would be out of touch for the evening, and was not currently in any life threatening danger, which was both reassuring, and worrying.

On the one hand, Alex was safe, on the other, Alex was ignoring her.

The mature thing to do would have been to give Alex some space. There was clearly something going on with her sister, and while it obviously had something to do with Kara, that didn’t necessarily give her the right to intrude.

Being a nosy, interfering alien sister did though.

Kara gave herself points for not actually going out to look for Alex. The fact that it would have been a heck of a lot harder to find her without flight, super hearing or X-ray vision, did not in any way diminish her pride in that restraint. Persistence in the defiance of all reason was a Danvers trait as much as a Kryptonian one.  If she had decided to find her sister, she would have, powers or no powers.

So she took the bus to Alex’s apartment instead.

Kara told herself that waiting in the hallway would be weirder than going in. They had keys for a reason, and she really needed to sit down. She was going to be very, very glad to get back to normal in a few days. Maybe Hank would let her hang out under the sun lamps some more tomorrow.  She could try to bake the last of the kryptonite out of her system.

The apartment was dark and still. Kara opted not to switch on the lights, choosing instead to curl up on the couch to wait. She didn’t mean to fall asleep, but the next thing she knew, there was the rattle of a key in the lock, and a bright light, and then Alex was staggering in the door, half-supported by a ruffled and harried looking Winn.

“Oh, Alex...” Kara sighed, uncurling and sitting up. Even without super powers, she could smell the alcohol on her sister. This was bad... like worse than last thanksgiving levels of bad. 

“She’s okay.” Winn didn’t look at all surprised to see Kara there, stepping back and letting her take his place under Alex’s arm. Alex didn’t seem to notice the transfer, seemingly very focused on where to put her feet. “She went out drinking with Maggie, but something came up, so I got drafted.”

“Maggie let her drink this much?” Kara was furious, but gentle as she guided Alex over to sit on the couch and knelt down to take her boots off.

“So pretty...” Alex murmured, reaching out and petting Kara’s hair. She pulled a loose curl through her fingers, letting it fall before choosing another one.

“I know Maggie’s pretty,” Kara agreed indulgently. “But she should have taken better care of you.”

Alex looked confused. “Not Maggie-”

“Uh, yeah.” Winn cut in, awkwardly. “That was my bad. She was still pretty coherent when I got there, but she offered to buy me a drink as a thank you, and we got a little carried away. Your sister doesn’t exactly take no for an answer.”

Kara snorted. “I’ve noticed.” She finished with the boots, untangled Alex’s fingers from her hair, and pulled her to her feet. It was harder than she’d expected. Super strength would have come in very handy right now. “Okay, let’s get you to bed. Winn, can you grab a glass of water for her?”

“Sure.”

Alex was... less than cooperative. As soon as Kara had wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled one of Alex’s over her shoulder, Alex buried her fingers in Kara’s hair again.

“Ow...” Kara protested, when Alex tripping over her own feet led to a particularly sharp tug.

“Sorry,” Alex whispered, nuzzling into the side of Kara’s neck and inhaling deeply. “You smell nice.”

 “That’s because you smell like the inside of a bar, Alex.” Kara said, focusing on getting her sister to her room, and ignoring the warmth of Alex’s breath on her throat. She was going to be so mortified in the morning if she remembered this. 

“You always smell nice,” Alex argued, pressing her lips to the corner of Kara’s jaw.

Kara jerked away, startled, and nearly dropped her sister before stepping back to steady her. Drunk Alex was surprisingly flirty. It was...unsettling? Was that the right word?  Kara certainly felt unsettled. Her skin tingled from the kiss, and she didn’t think it was the lingering kryptonite making her stomach feel funny

This was new... and weird. Not _bad_ weird... just... _weird._

She was really glad Winn was still in the kitchen. He didn’t need to see Alex kissing her, however innocently.

All in all, Kara was very glad when she finally got Alex into her room and sitting down on the bed. She’d been planning to help her into pyjamas, but given the... well, maybe it was better if everyone kept their clothes on right now.

Winn brought the glass of water in just as she was pulling the blankets and sheets down.

“Here,” he said, passing it to Alex. “You’re still going to be miserable tomorrow, but it will help.”

Alex made a face, but she drank it, handing the glass back to Winn when she was finished, and he took it back to the kitchen.

“Lay down now,” Kara said, pressing down on Alex’s shoulder until she got under the blankets and snuggled into the pillows. “I’ll be on the couch if you need anything.”

“Stay...” Alex snagged the hem of Kara’s shirt and tugged.

Kara very gently pried Alex’s fingers loose. “Not tonight.”

Alex grumbled, but her eyes were already closing. Kara shut off the light and pulled the door closed behind her. She found Winn in the kitchen, drying off the glass and putting it back in the cupboard.

“I’ll just uh...” he gestured towards the door.

“You,” Kara fixed him with her very best, I’m Supergirl and you don’t want to mess with me glare, and pointed to the couch. “Sit.”

“Okay.” Winn ducked his head and sat.

Kara took a deep breath, reminded herself that this wasn’t Winn’s fault. He was weak, and Alex was scary when she wanted to be. “ _Now,_ ” she began, keeping her voice low in case Alex wasn’t asleep yet, “you are going to tell me what is going on.”

“Uhh... nothing? Would you believe nothing?”

Kara just glared.

“Look, Kara... on a good day, you may be able to melt my face with that look, but your sister will literally shoot me and bury my body in the desert. I can live without a face. Not so much under six feet of sand.”

Kara scoffed. “She wouldn’t actually hurt you.”

Winn’s look was skeptical. “Clearly you and I see very different sides of your sister. Don’t get me wrong, I love Alex like the big badass sister I never had, but she is definitely the scariest of the Danvers.”

“Winn...” Kara changed tactics, sitting down on the couch beside him and switching from her scary alien face, to her poor, sad and alone, last of her kind, alien face. Mostly it was about the eyes and the pout. “I’m really worried about her...”

“You do know that look is actual torture, right?”

Kara turned it up another notch.

“I hate you right now.”

“I just want to help...”

Winn sighed, running his hands through his hair. “I promised.”

Kara huffed, leaning back. “What if I guess?”

“I think that’s a grey area. I could plead a technicality.”

“Okay! I can work with that.” Kara pulled her legs up against her chest and rested her chin on her knees, thinking. “It’s about me, right? Something happened at the DEO while I was all...”she gestured vaguely. “Not myself.”

Winn nodded. “I think we can all agree that’s pretty obvious by now.”

“Was it something I said?”

“Sort of... more did, than said, though I don’t think the said part helped.”

“Was it bad?”

“No.” Winn seemed pretty sure on that point. “Not bad. Unexpected... and unsettling I guess, for Alex.”

Unsettling... There was that word again. So what could she have done that was so unsettling that Alex would avoid her, act all jumpy when she did see her, then run to Maggie and get drunk, and come back and take her turn at unsettling _Kara_... There was the barest edge of a memory... just out of reach...

Oh.

Kara felt her eyes widen.

Oh, no.

“Winn...” Kara said carefully. “I didn’t... um... _kiss_ Alex, did I?”

Winn looked like he really, really wanted to say no.

Oh, Rao.

Kara grabbed a pillow off the couch and smacked Winn over the head with it. “How could you not tell me I did that!” she hissed.

“Alex made me promise!”

Hitting him again, Kara jumped off the couch and started pacing, arms wrapped around her middle. “This is bad Winn. Alex has been going through a really rough time lately, with Maggie and everything, and ever since I came to earth, it’s all been about me, and my problems. So this time it was supposed to be about Alex, and I thought I was doing really well with it, and then I go and do something so _stupid_... and make it all about me again. I don’t even know why I _did_ that! No wonder she’s been avoiding me!” Kara stopped, turned, and headed for the bedroom. “I have to apologize. I have to try to make it right, somehow...”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”  Winn flailed his way in front of her, holding up his hands against further pillow related onslaught. “Don’t do that!”

Kara frowned. “Why not?”

“Because...” Winn hesitated. “Look. You feel guilty, I get that, but if Alex wanted an apology, she would have told you. So can’t we just forget about it? I mean, you feel guilty for kissing her, and stealing her big gay spotlight or whatever, and she feels guilty because you’re sisters, and she didn’t hate it, and I feel guilty for not keeping my mouth shut... it’s a big guilt party, so doesn’t that all just cancel itself out?”

It took a moment for the words to sink in, and from the expression on his face, Winn realized what he’d said about half a second after Kara did.

“She...didn’t hate it?” Did that mean what she thought it meant?

“Um...” Winn looked about thirty seconds away from bolting. “I don’t suppose we can forget I just said that part?”

“Winn!”

“I am a dead man...” Winn stumbled back to the couch and sat down, head in his hands.

Kara sank down beside him. She didn’t know what to think. About any of it, her mind was a complete blank. She’d kissed Alex... she remembered it now, sort of, the memory was hazy and soft around the edges, more like a dream than a memory, and Alex hadn’t hated it. Which meant... she’d liked it? Alex had liked being kissed, by Kara.

Wow.

That was... she didn’t know what that was. Except maybe... she didn’t hate it either?

“Winn?” she asked. “What did I say? You said I said something, and that it didn’t help.”

Winn peeked out from behind his hands. “You’re not going to hit me again are you?”

Kara shook her head.

Winn dropped his hands and sat up with a sigh. “You said it was a secret, before you kissed her, like it was something you’d been hiding, maybe for a long time.”

“Oh.”

“Was it?” Winn turned on the couch to face her, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently. “Kara, you know you can talk to me about anything, right? Do you..um..do you _like_ like Alex?”

Good question. “I don’t know,” Kara said, truthfully. “I mean, I kind of had a crush on her in High School I guess... but I’d only been on Earth a few years, and I didn’t have all the social stuff worked out yet, and she was all I had. Then she went away to college, and she was hardly ever home that first year. I missed her, but I started making other friends; I even had a boyfriend.  I thought I got over it. And I’ve never been interested in any other girls, but now... why did I kiss her, Winn?”

Kara gulped in a breath that was half a sob, and then Winn was hugging her, and she was wrapping her arms around him and holding on as hard as she could.  

“Shhh... It’ll be okay, Kara. We’ll figure this out.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Winn?”

“Yeah?”

“When Alex shoots you and buries you in the desert, what kind of flowers do you want at your funeral?”

This time Kara was the one who took a pillow to the head.


	5. Giant Slugs Never Choose a Good Time to Cause Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex is hungover, Kara is a literal disaster, and Winn takes a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, the holidays were busier than I was expecting, and this chapter was being stubborn. It's not a long one, but I'm hoping to have the 6th and final chapter up by Saturday or Sunday.
> 
> Thank you for all the comments and kudos for chapter 4! I hope you like this one too! No Winn, unfortunately, but the guy really needed a break, and hey, the sisters actually talk! :)

Kara slept on the couch.

Or, at least she _tried_ to sleep on the couch. After Winn had left, taking with him her reluctant promise not to say anything to Alex until she had given it some serious thought, Kara dutifully got out the spare blankets and pillows, made up the couch and lay down. She wanted to sleep. She really did. She was pretty sure sleep would have helped put everything in perspective, given her some distance... or space or something. It certainly couldn’t have made things any _more_ confusing.

Because they were.

Confusing.

And they shouldn’t have been.

Things should have been simple. Alex was her sister.

_Sister._

As in, not someone she was supposed to be kissing.

End of story.

Except, that it wasn’t the end, because apparently Alex had liked it; being kissed by her. And Kara... had maybe kind of liked it too? Or at least, she kind of liked that Alex had liked it... because she didn’t remember the actual kiss very well. There had been a lot of drugs... and maybe some trauma, because, being shot, not fun.

Kara really wished she remembered that kiss better.

Or at least, that she could remember the thought process leading up to the decision to kiss her sister. If there even _had_ been a thought process. Which, there might not have been. See, drugs and trauma. Still... Winn had said she’d called it a secret.

Was it even possible to keep a secret from yourself?

This was new territory for Kara. Usually, everything she was feeling was pretty much front and center. Sure, sometimes there were layers, but they were pretty thin layers. Nothing that couldn’t be resolved by going a few rounds with a Buick. She couldn’t even keep secrets from _other_ people, let alone herself.

So how had she kept this one? And what did it mean, if she had?

Sure, she’d had a bit of a crush on Alex when they were teenagers, and there had been a moment... but that was a long time ago, before Kara had really acclimated to life on Earth. And really, who wouldn’t have had a crush on Alex? She had been the coolest person in Kara’s very limited world. It hadn’t meant anything, and when Kara had figured out friends, and boys, and dating, those feelings... they’d gone away.

Hadn’t they?

Kara rolled onto her stomach and pulled the blankets up over her head, as if the thin shield of a cotton sheet and periwinkle duvet would be proof against the difficult questions and even more difficult answers that threatened to turn her world upside down.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t work.

Sleep never had a chance.

Still, Kara was stubborn, and she refused to admit defeat until the first glimmer of dawn began to filter into the apartment. Pushing back the covers and leaving her glasses on the table beside the couch, Kara got up and slipped quietly out onto the balcony. The sun was barely over the horizon, but she could already feel its warmth sinking into her. She wrapped her hands loosely around the railing and closed her eyes, focusing on soaking up as much light and strength as possible. As the sun rose higher, she could feel her powers waking up, turning over lazily and unfurling from the tight cold knot where the kryptonite had smothered them. Weak still, but growing stronger.

Kara welcomed their recovery with relief. As much as she had once wished for normalcy, she could never wish her powers away. They were a part of her, proof of her origins when Krypton seemed more like a dream than a home.

She gave herself a few more minutes, letting the sunlight and the promise of a new day wash away the sleepless night, before heading inside to wash her face and brush her hair.

She could handle this.

Whatever _this_ was exactly, she would figure it out, and then she would handle it.

But first, breakfast.

Of course, Alex didn’t have any food in the kitchen. Alex never had food. This was why they always hung out at Kara’s place. Alex just didn’t understand the importance of snacks. Kara sighed at the nearly empty cupboards. Canned soup and some kind of whole grain cereal that had probably never even _seen_ sugar... why had she wanted to kiss this woman again? 

Clearly, she had been delusional.

Kara closed the cupboard and grabbed her purse and her glasses. Moments like this were why humans had invented donut shops.

On the upside, being awake at dawn meant she scored half a dozen crullers.

Balancing two boxes of donuts, Alex’s coffee and her tea, Kara somehow got back into the apartment without spilling anything. A minor miracle given her power shortage, and nearly wasted when she looked up from shoving the door closed with her hip and saw her sister leaning against the counter in the kitchen, a bottle of painkillers in one hand and the other pressed to her forehead. 

“Alex!”  Kara stumbled, but managed to stay on her feet, holding out the coffee once she’d regained her balance. “Good Morning?”

Alex grumbled something that might have been a good morning, or might have equally likely been a suggestion as to exactly what Kara could do with her good morning, but she took the coffee anyway, using it to wash down what looked like more than the recommended number of pills before putting the bottle back in the cupboard. She snagged the top box of donuts off the stack as she passed Kara, coming around the counter to perch on one of the stools, and nudging the other one towards Kara with the side of her foot.  

Given the situation, it was probably as close to an invitation as she was going to get.

Kara took it, sitting down and opening up her own box. Thankfully Alex hadn’t taken the one with the crullers. Kara didn’t think much of her chances right now if she’d had to try and negotiate an exchange of prisoners.

They ate in silence. Alex was wholly focused on her breakfast, though she seemed to be more interested in tearing her donut into tiny little pieces and littering them around her coffee cup than actually eating it. Kara inhaled three crullers, sneaking sideways glances at her sister between bites.

Alex had exchanged last night’s clothes for worn blue jeans and a grey sweater with the sleeves stretched out from pulling them down over her hands when she was cold. Her hair was damp, loose curls drying around her face, and her feet were bare, hooked around the legs of the stool. She looked tired, and vulnerable, but there was steel in the set of her jaw and the line of her shoulders. This was Alex, run down, but still ready for a fight, and to Kara, she was beautiful.

She had always been beautiful.

“You’re staring.”

Kara startled, nearly dropping her tea. “Oh! um...” she put the cup down. “Sorry?”

Alex just shook her head. “So how much did Winn tell you?” She sounded resigned, rather than upset, but unlike Kara, Alex was very, very good at hiding her feelings. Especially from herself.

“About... last night?” Kara tried hopefully. “Just that you went out for drinks with Maggie but she had to go back to the station, so um...” she skipped over the getting drunk part, adjusting her glasses nervously. “He brought you home, and I was here, because I was worried when I didn’t hear from you...”

Alex winced. “I’m sorry about that. I should have called.” She rubbed the back of her neck, looking anywhere but at Kara. “Is that um... _all_ he told you?”

Kara nearly said yes.  It would have been easier. She could have said yes, and Alex would probably have let it go, because clearly Alex didn’t want to talk about it either, but Kara was pretty sure they needed to talk about it, and she didn’t know when they would get another chance and, and... Kara... Kara had kissed Alex for a reason. She might not know exactly what that reason was, but she kind of wanted to figure it out, and she was hoping that maybe Alex could help her with that, but that meant they had to _talk._

Sorry Winn.

“He... _might_ have mentioned a few other things...”

“How many things?”

“Um, everything?” Kara clutched her fourth cruller like a lifeline, darting a glance over at Alex, trying to gauge her reaction. 

“Oh...” Alex had given up even the pretence of eating. The steel in her shoulders had spread down her spine, making her rigid and cold, fingers white where they gripped the edge of the counter.

“I’m sorry Alex,” Kara whispered, wanting to reach out, but holding back. “I shouldn’t have... I mean... it wasn’t fair...”

Alex waved her off, getting up and closing the box of donuts. “It’s okay. You weren’t yourself.”

“But you...” Kara hesitated, not quite knowing how to bring up the fact that Alex hadn’t exactly _minded._ “I mean... Winn told me _everything._ ”

“Of course he did,” Alex muttered under her breath, turning and leaning back against the counter, coffee cradled in her hands.

“Are you okay? I mean... is there something...?”

“I’m fine, Kara. I know...” She hesitated. “I know it didn’t mean anything... to you.”

“But Alex-“

“Stop!” Alex held up a hand, and Kara didn’t need super powers to see that it was shaking, but her words were firm, almost harsh. “Please, Kara, for once can’t you just leave something alone? You don’t need to _fix_ everything.”

“And you don’t have to protect me from everything!” Kara snapped back, frustrated that this conversation wasn’t going at all in any direction that she liked. “You should have told me, Alex.”

“Why?” Alex honestly sounded curious. “So you could feel guilty about rejecting me?”

Oh for the... “What makes you think I would have rejected you?”

“Kara...” This time it was Alex who nearly spilled her drink, using it to gesture in Kara’s general direction. “You’re straight!”

“I’m an Alien, Alex!” Kara felt the need to point out.  “I don’t think the regular rules of human sexuality really apply here.”

“But...” Alex just stared at her, clearly at a loss for words. “You...” She set her coffee cup down on the counter and ran her hands through her hair, tugging roughly on the curling ends. “What are you saying?”

Kara felt the anger leave her in a rush, replaced by uncertainty. “I don’t know?” She ran her hands down her thighs, trapping them between her knees to still their sudden trembling. “I just... I thought maybe we could talk about it. I mean... I _kissed_ you, Alex... I don’t think I would have done that, if I didn’t... “

Alex studied her quietly for a minute, expression serious. “Kara, you don’t have to... Just because _I’m_... I mean...” She straightened abruptly, tugging on the ends of her sleeves and taking a few steps away. “This is... I don’t even know what this is. We’re _sisters,_ Kara. And if you’re not even sure how you feel-“

“Hey,” Kara reached out and caught one of Alex’s wrists, halting her retreat. “I’m trying to figure that out, I-“ Inspiration struck and she jumped up, pulling Alex closer. “Kiss me!”

“What?”

“Kiss me,” Kara said again. “Then we’ll know. I don’t really remember the first one, it’s all...” she made an indistinct gesture with her free hand, “blurry.”

Alex stared at her in disbelief. “Are you serious? I’m not kissing you based on a...a _hunch_ , that you _might_ be interested.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s...” Alex pulled her wrist free, and Kara let her go. “I’m not going to be your experiment, Kara.”

“That’s not what I...” Kara winced. That really did sound awful. She was doing this all wrong. Winn was right, she should have thought this through first, figured out how she felt before dragging Alex’s feelings into it. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t what I meant, at _all!”_

“Then what _did_ you mean?”Alex stepped back and crossed her arms, fingers tangling and pulling her sweater tightly against her sides. Kara could only _just_ hear the beat of her heart, so hard and fast that it had to hurt.

Okay. Kara took a deep breath and reminded herself that she could handle this. She had to handle this, because hurting Alex? Even accidentally? No. Just no.  So that meant it was difficult, world upside-down-turning answer time. She had this.    

“I... I think I _like_ you, Alex. I think I’ve liked you for a really long time, but I was trying so hard to be human, and there were all these rules...“ Kara ticked them off on her fingers. “Act normal, control your strength, keep your feet on the ground, Alex is your _sister.._. So I told myself I didn’t like you that way, but now... Alex, I’m _not_ human, and I don’t want to be normal anymore. I’m saving people, and fighting aliens and robots and cyborgs, and _flying_ , and you _are_ my sister, but with everything we’ve faced, and everything that we’ve risked and sacrificed, I don’t see why we have to miss out on the chance to be _this_ too.” She gestured between them. “But I want to be sure, because I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t _ever_ want to hurt you, Alex.”

“Oh.” Alex whispered, shoulders loosening, and hands falling free from their death-grip on her sweater. Her eyes had lost that wary, defensive glint, leaving them soft and warm, though still unsure. “Kara, I...” She stepped closer...

And of course, of _course,_ that was when Alex’s phone rang.

Kara resisted the urge to use her laser eyes on it when Alex pulled the phone out of pocket. Her heat vision might still be at the level of a particularly enthusiastic toaster, but in that moment she would have cheerfully used up every scrap of power in sheer spite.

From the look on her face, Alex probably wouldn’t have blamed her.

But Alex was Alex, which meant duty came first.

“Agent Danvers,” she answered briskly, turning away. “Again?  I thought you had it contained?” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t care if it seemed like it sobered up, who lets an eighteen foot slug out of the drunk tank without someone to take responsibility for it? You guys seriously have to stop leaving Miller in charge over night. Okay, I’ll meet you there.” Alex hung up the call and jammed the phone back into her pocket, making no attempt to hide her irritation.

“Kara...”

“You have to go,” Kara finished for her. “It’s okay.”

“It’s really not,” Alex disagreed. “But apparently this thing is back in the subway system and it’s getting crankier. Maggie says there have already been a few injuries.”

“I’ll come with you!” Kara offered, eager to get off the bench, and back into the action, and not at all willing to let Alex run off into danger without her.

Alex shook her head. “You’re still recovering, and you have work today.”

Kara shrugged. “I’m a reporter; where else should I be than covering the capture of the giant alien slug holding up the morning commute?”

“Please, Kara...” Alex hesitated, and then seemed to brace herself before pulling Kara into a hug. “Stay safe. I almost lost you once already this week. ”

Kara sank into the hug, wrapping her arms around her sister and holding her tight, just for a moment. She would have liked it to last longer, to explore what it might feel like, to hold Alex with all of these new possibilities between them, but Alex was already letting go.

“I’ll call,” she said, taking her gun and holster from the shelf beside the door, and strapping it on. Her leather jacket followed, and her boots, and Kara knew she’d stop at the DEO and get her full kit, but right now, still in blue jeans and a thin sweater, her hair not quite dry, and dark circles under her eyes, she looked more Alex than Agent, and Kara just wanted to protect her.  

Kara nodded, not arguing, but she had her phone in her hand the moment Alex went out the door and closed it behind her. “Winn? I need a favour...”


	6. I'm Sorry, I Don't Know Where This Came From...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex gets slimed, Kara tries to be sneaky, and Winn picks out his flowers. 
> 
> Also a whole lot of giant slugs. I'm sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied, you're getting 7 chapters, because 4.5K of Slug fighting action happened. I don't know why. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> P.S. Thanks for all the comments and Kudos!

The slug had definitely gotten crankier.

And corrosive?

By the time Alex made it to the scene, the alien’s glutinous green slime had already dissolved half a subway car. The slug itself was still draped over the other half, reaching in through the broken windows with long, tapered limbs that seemed to form as needed from its thick body before melting away and leaving a glistening, bubbling trail that was quickly eating through the metal.  

“That is...” Alex literally did not have words. This was really not what she’d hoped to be facing with her head still aching and her stomach muttering unhappily about the little she’d eaten for breakfast.

“I know.” Maggie also looked slightly nauseated, but otherwise she was all in one piece. The detective had met Alex on the surface, but quickly led her and the DEO team down into the tunnel, where Maggie’s people had set up a temporary first aid station and barricades against the public. Most of the casualties had already been moved out, but there were a few civilians and a handful of officers being treated for what looked like minor chemical burns. “We managed to evacuate most of the train, but according to the other passengers, there are still at least five people unaccounted for.”

Alex eyed the veritable _river_ of mucous coating the floor of the tunnel beyond the barricades. The track had been compromised when the slug had set up shop, causing the derailment and subsequent crash when the train had hit the corroded gaps in the line.Currently the train was half on, half off the track, jack-knifing back and forth through the tunnel before eventually disappearing around a curve. Several of the cars were on their sides, and it looked like most of them had taken some kind of structural damage.

“You’ve tried going in from the other side?”

“Yeah, uh... so remember how there was only one of these things yesterday?”  

Alex nodded.

“Well apparently this thing was down here looking for a friend... because there’s another one at the other end of the train.”

Of course there was. “Let me guess, it’s also melting its way through the subway cars?”

“Yep.”

“I’m trying really hard not to make a Lady and the Tramp reference here.”

“Oh believe me, it’s already been made.”

“So... we have to somehow get past a giant, angry slug, make it through all of... _that,_ ” Alex indicated the corrosive goo liberally coating everything in sight. “Find the missing passengers, and then get them safely back here.”

Maggie shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “More or less. I don’t suppose Supergirl might be available? Having someone who could fly would be damn useful right about now.”

That was an understatement. Alex almost wished Kara was here. At full power of course. As it was, Alex didn’t want her sister anywhere near this. If she’d had her way Kara would have called in sick for the week and stayed in bed until she was fully recovered.

In her _own_ bed

Alone.

Alex reminded herself that she was at _work_ and that being unable to think of “Kara” and “bed” in the same sentence without blushing was completely inappropriate. Was this seriously her life now?

As distractions went, battling giant corrosive slugs in love was low on her list, but it should do the job.

“Supergirl is...” Alex hesitated, unwilling to reveal Kara’s condition to a tunnel full of people. “Busy on another project.” Hopefully Snapper had her doing something nice and safe, like filing.

“Right, so it’s you and me then?” Maggie offered her a grin. “Do you want Lady or the Tramp?”

Alex eyed the slug they could see. “Which one is which?”

“The other one is bigger and uglier.”

“I’ll take the Tramp then,” Alex decided. “Any ideas on how to neutralize the slime?”

“None so far. It seems to eat through anything we throw at it, or try to collect it in. And these things spit if you piss them off. Honestly if there wasn’t anyone in there I’d be all for letting them finish whatever it is they’re doing and hope they go back to being their large and gross, but mostly harmless selves when they’re done. Live and let live, right?”

Alex just shook her head. Maggie had a singularly inclusive attitude towards any and all aliens and their lifestyles that she was still struggling with. But then, Alex was kind of hoping to date one, so maybe she wasn’t in much of a position to judge. “So we’re winging it?”

“Looks that way, Danvers.”

Great.

“Okay,” Alex beckoned to her team. They would need to go up to the surface and around to the next station to come up from behind the train. “Hold here, and let me know if anything changes with Lady. I’d rather not engage them both at the same time, just in case we need back up at the other end.”

Maggie nodded. “Stay safe.”

“You too.”

Alex led the way back up the stairs, using her earpiece to call into headquarters. “Hey Winn? I need you to go down to R&D and bring me anything we have that might stand up to alien strength organic corrosion.”

This was going to be interesting.

*****

Kara was pretty darned pleased with herself. Winn had come through, calling in an anonymous tip to the Tribune that Supergirl had been spotted investigating the disturbance in the subway tunnels, and that there was a good chance it was an alien related disturbance. And since Kara _knew_ Supergirl... and the hero had been willing to let the reporter use her as a source _before_...  it hadn’t been hard to get Snapper to agree to send her out to cover it.

Alex couldn’t get mad at her if she was just doing her job, right? And if Alex happened to need any help... well, Kara would be right there already, and she couldn’t exactly _ignore_ it if her sister was in trouble, now could she?

 And they said she couldn’t be sneaky.

Hah!

Of course if she got hurt Alex would never let her hear the end of it, but Kara had weighed that against the risk of _Alex_ getting hurt because she wasn’t there to protect her, and decided it was worth it. She had enough of her powers back to make her a lot sturdier than a human, if not quite invulnerable yet, so really, Alex was being unreasonable. Not that Kara was going to tell her that. She had _some_ self preservation instincts.

Still, she stayed above ground and behind the police lines with the rest of the press, for now, because for one, she didn’t want to waste the super speed on getting past them, two, the more sunlight she could soak up the better, three, if Alex caught her here and wasn’t _actually_ in danger, being _nearly_ invulnerable wasn’t going to be nearly enough.

*****

 “Exactly how sure are you that these are going to work?” Alex asked dubiously as she pulled on one of the shiny black suits Winn had dug out of storage for them.  The material was thick, and weirdly stretchy, almost like a second skin. It covered her completely, from a high collar around her throat to tight cuffs at wrists and ankles. There were boots and gloves as well, and a set of dark goggles.

“About seventy-five percent sure,” Winn answered, handing out the gear to the rest of the five-man team Alex would be taking into the tunnel. “The inventory file said they were designed as a catch-all solution to dealing with unknown and suspected alien, substances in the field. But apparently there just weren’t enough cases of murderous goo to justify making them standard issue. Hopefully they’ll at least slow this stuff down.”   

Alex slipped her hands into the gloves and hung the goggles around her neck. “We’ll try to avoid stepping in it then.” A quick glance around showed her everyone suited up and ready to go. She directed them towards the tunnel, quickly strapping on her weapons over the suit before turning back to Winn and the three Agents she was leaving topside.

“Don’t let anyone follow us down without protective gear. That includes Detective Sawyer and her team. And Agent Schott?”

Winn looked up from his inventory list, pen hanging out of his mouth. “Yeah? Er... um...” He removed the pen. “Yes, Agent Danvers?”

Alex beckoned, leading Winn a few steps away from the group and leaning close enough not to be overheard. “When this is over, you and I, we’re going to have a _long_ talk about the value of confidentiality.”

Winn squeaked, the papers in his hands creasing under a sudden death-grip.

Alex just gave him her best “I will see the colour of your blood” smile, pulled up her goggles, and followed her team down into the tunnel.

Her hopes of completely avoiding stepping in the slime were quickly dashed. The floor at the bottom of the stairs was one big, viscous mess. Thankfully it was mostly shallow. Alex went first, trying to pick the driest spots and breathing a sigh of relief when her boots didn’t immediately begin to disintegrate on contact.

“Single file,” She said over her shoulder. “Step where I step, and keep your weapons holstered. This is first and foremost a search and rescue, not a capture. If we can, we want to avoid directly engaging the Aliens. Any sign of compromise to your suit, inform me immediately, and then get the hell out.”

They found the second Slug about a hundred yards down the tunnel. Alex brought the group to a halt to take stock of the situation. By the looks of it, this one had already made it through two cars, and as they watched, it got started on the next one in line. Alex furrowed her brow, the tunnel was narrow, but it wasn’t so narrow that the slug couldn’t just squeeze past the train, so why waste time dissolving the cars?

Wait... was that thing getting _bigger?_ Okay, so not dissolving then, more like... absorbing? So the slime was made up of some kind of digestive enzymes? As a bio-engineer Alex was fascinated, and if they were in her lab then, as Kara would say, she would be seriously getting her nerd on, but right now, she was more interested in getting past this thing than studying it.

The car it was currently munching on had fallen on its side in the middle of the tunnel, and the slug had started on the undercarriage, leaving a clear path between the top of the car and the wall of the tunnel. Hoping that the slug was more interested in eating than fighting, Alex led the team through the narrow space and out the other side.

Once past the slug, Alex left two of the agents in the shelter of the fourth car as lookouts, while the rest of them began a car-by-car search for the missing passengers. They found the first woman unconscious on the floor of the tunnel. She was curled against the wall in the shadow of the train, and a brief exam revealed a cut across her forehead and a broken arm. Alex guessed she’d been conscious after the crash, but passed out during the evacuation. Her pulse was strong, and Alex quickly cleared her for transport. Agents Finn and Baker rolled out the portable stretcher from their packs, slid it underneath her while Alex stabilized her head, and with Agent Shaw as an escort, headed back to the exit.

Alex held her position until they returned, slightly slimier, but successful.

Okay... One down, four to go.  

They nearly made it.

Alex was carrying the last passenger out in her arms, a little boy that they’d found wedged under a seat with a death grip on his teddy bear and one thumb firmly planted in his mouth, when the Slug finally seemed to realize they were there.

Agents Baker, Ford and Carson were already on the surface with the fourth rescued passenger, and Agents Finn and Shaw were ahead of her between the car and the wall when the corner of the car shifted ahead of them with a groan, slamming into the wall, and cutting off their escape route.

Green slime bubbled up over the edge above them as the alien reared up, and up, and up... easily half again the size it had been when they’d entered the tunnel. There were no visible eyes, but Alex would have sworn it was studying them. Her fingers itched to go for her gun, but they were cornered, and the kid didn’t have any protective gear.

Slowly, so slowly it was nearly physically painful, Alex passed the little boy to Agent Shaw. “As soon as it moves, get him out of here,” she said, waiting for his nod before turning and sprinting back down the tunnel. The end of the slug Alex had decided was its head swung around, tracking her, but the bulk of its body didn’t move.

Damn.

Drawing her gun, Alex fired a warning shot into the ground in front of it. The slug rippled, shifting but still pressed against the car, which was edging ever closer to the wall under its weight, slime dripping down nearer and nearer to the agents and the kid.

Her next shot sank into the end of what Alex was assuming was its tail. And that... that got a reaction. A deep growl reverberated through the tunnel, and the slug heaved itself towards Alex, faster than she’d been expecting, using its many expandable appendages to slide slickly across the ground, like a slimy green centipede.  Alex was forced to retreat, taking cover under the next car when a gobbet of foul smelling spit flew at her head.

Well, so much for trying not to piss it off.

Time to call for backup.

*****

Kara would have given up her last pot sticker rights for life to have her super hearing back at full power. She was getting bits and pieces of dialogue between the two teams. Not enough to get any real clear idea what was going on, but enough to know that something wasn’t quite right.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the officers Maggie had left at the entrance to the tunnel suddenly got very focused on their radios, and then it was like someone had kicked an anthill. The detective and her team came up out of the tunnel at a run, and within moments the previously calm and ordered operation was a whirlwind of activity and shouted orders.

Kara heard her sister’s name, and _shots fired_ , and that was enough to have her ducking under the police tape and catching Maggie by the arm. “What’s going on?”

“Kara?” Maggie looked genuinely startled to see her, and Kara cursed her civilian clothes. She’d forgotten Maggie wasn’t an official member of the Super Friends yet.

“Please Maggie, is Alex okay?”

The detective hesitated, but something in Kara’s expression must have persuaded her. “She’s fine. There’s been some trouble down at the other end, but nothing we can’t handle.” She put a hand over Kara’s on her arm. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to her.”

Uh huh, right, like she was going to stay here and wait for Maggie to save Alex?  Nope. Not going to happen. “I’m coming with you.”

“Kara, you’re a reporter...”

“I’m her _sister.”_ Kara tried to put a little _girl of steel_ into voice.

Maggie didn’t look convinced.

Okay, fine then. Alex could yell at her for it later, but right now Kara didn’t care. She pulled her glasses off with her free hand and stared Maggie down, willing her to understand. 

Maggie’s eyes widened. “Fair enough,” she agreed, taking the glasses out of Kara’s hand and pushing them back onto her face. “But keep those on, or giant slugs aren’t going to be the only thing on the news tonight.”

*****

Alex lay flat on her belly under the subway car, hidden between the last set of wheels and very thankful that the ground here was mostly dry. A glance down the tunnel showed Agents Finn and Shaw disappearing over the side of the wreckage with the kid.

Good.

Wet snuffling noises drew Alex’s attention back to her own plight. The slug was looking for her, pressing its face under the bottom edge of the car and shoving upwards, making the undercarriage above Alex rock and groan. She shuffled sideways, trying to stay out of reach.

Frustrated, the slug roared and threw itself against the subway car, shoving it off the tracks and into the wall with a screech of metal. Alex just barely managed to roll clear, scrambling to her feet and bringing up her gun. Black gloves squeaked against the trigger as Alex aimed for the things head, but where there had only been mucous and slippery green skin, now there were teeth! A lot of teeth!

Before Alex could make the shot, it lunged down and forward, growling and sending dripping tendrils snaking along the ground towards her. One caught Alex’s ankle, yanking her off her feet and dumping her onto the ground. The sharp smell of burning plastic hit her even before the material of her suit started bubbling, and Alex yelped as sudden heat became pain, and she kicked out, managing to pull free as the grasping limb thinned and dissolved.

Apparently alien slime was far more potent fresh from the source.

A second tendril knocked the gun from Alex’s hands before she could get to her feet, and a third, thicker one, pinned her to the ground. 

Trapped on her back, a giant slug with roughly a million teeth looming over her, and the sizzling of her suit beginning to melt in her ears, Alex’s first thought was that this was a particularly stupid and disgusting way to die. Her second was that she wished she had taken Kara up on that offer of a kiss this morning, because dying without knowing what they might have had if she’d just had the guts to go for it? That really sucked. 

*****

Lack of Super Speed made Kara’s usual spin into red and blue impossible.  But that’s what friends were for.

And large black DEO Vans with plenty of cargo space once all the bins of protective gear had been unloaded.

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” Winn complained, zipping up the back of Kara’s suit and fastening her cape while she pulled on her boots. “I was hoping for a nice, merciful bullet to the head, but for this? Your sister is going to make me suffer.”

Ready, Kara turned around and gave him a quick hug. “I’ll write you the _best_ eulogy ever!”

“You better!” Winn called after her. “And I like Lilies!”

*****

Alex’s chest was just beginning to burn, and she struggled as gobbets of drool fell from between jagged teeth to sear into her throat and jaw. She could see more boiling up in the slug’s mouth, felt the pressure ease slightly as it leaned back, preparing to spit...

And then, instead of humiliating and agonizing death, there was gunfire, and running feet, and sudden darkness as a new weight threw itself on top of her.

A darkness edged in red.

Alex had been sheltered by that cape enough times to know exactly what was going on.

Kara was _so_ dead when they got out of this.

More shots rang out, and then hands were pulling Alex free from the ropy wet goop pinning her down. The cape snapped back as Kara got her loose, hauling Alex to her feet and dragging her away from the Slug while it was distracted, shrieking and firing spit balls at the shooters down the tunnel. Alex’s team had returned along with Maggie’s.

Kara hadn’t escaped unscathed. Slime coated her cape, was dripping from her hair, and had been splashed pretty liberally over the rest of her, but apparently even half-powered Kryptonians were indigestible, because it didn’t seem to be having any effect. Still, it was a pathetic enough sight that Alex almost felt bad about yelling at her.

 Almost.

“What the hell are you _doing_ here?” 

Kara gaped at her. “Saving your life!” she sputtered, wiping goo off her face.

“I had everything under control!” Alex lied.

Kara threw her hands up. “You were _literally_ about to die.”

“I was not!”

“You were to!”

 “Well, _you_ were supposed to be staying safe!”

“I’ll stay safe when you stop risking your life!”

“That’s my job!”

“Well it’s my job too!”

They glared at each other; Alex furious, and Kara with that mutinous set to her chin that meant there was no point in arguing with her.

“Fine,” Alex growled. “Let’s get this slimy bastard under control, and _then_ we can talk about you disobeying a direct order.”

“You are _so_ not the boss of me,” Kara muttered under her breath, but she said it quietly enough that Alex could pretend she hadn’t heard it, so she let it go.

Of course, corralling the slug was easier said than done.

Bullets just sank in, disappearing into the ooze without any sign of injury, (though enough of them could sever a limb and it didn’t seem to _enjoy_ being shot,) and half their team wasn’t in full protective gear.

“There wasn’t time!” Maggie snapped when Alex demanded to know why they were only wearing the boots and gloves, the two of them standing back to back and shooting at the reaching tendrils.

“There’s always time for safety.” Alex countered, ducking and pulling Maggie down with her to avoid a flying spit ball.

“You wanted me to let your sister come down here alone while I played dress-up, Danvers?” Maggie hissed, for their ears only. “Because she got into her outfit a lot faster than we could, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to wait for us.”

Alex stumbled, caught herself, and dodged a swiping limb. Oh they were going to talk about _that_ little disclosure later. “Touché,” she grumbled.

Supergirl was darting through the fight at a fraction of her usual speed, but still faster than the rest of them, wrestling flying limbs and using her cape to cover anyone who didn’t dodge in time. Alex had no doubt that if she’d had her full powers, this would have been over faster than she could say fried slug, but as it was, at best all they were doing was damage control.

And then the second slug showed up.

Alex and Maggie shared a look in the midst of chaos.

“We can’t let these things get up to the surface like this,” Alex gasped, exhausted.

“Got any suggestions?”

“Collapse the tunnel entrances. Trap them down here until they calm the hell down, or at least until we figure out how to stop them permanently.”

Maggie nodded, using her ear piece to pass the request for explosives up to the surface. “I’ll get it done. Can your team hold them down here until it’s ready?”

“We’ll have to.”

“Supergirl!” Alex called. “Get Maggie’s team out!”

Kara didn’t wait for an explanation, covering the officers one at a time as they disengaged and ran for the exit. Without her support, Alex’s team was forced to retreat, backing down the tunnel and drawing the slugs with them.  Finn went down, screaming as the slime from a direct hit ate through his suit.

“I’ve got him,” Kara said, returning and picking the Agent up before jumping free of the fight again. She couldn’t fly, but she was managing Mon-El style leaping. Alex didn’t want to think about what it was costing her to use this much power, but she couldn’t help seeing see how pale Kara was under the slime when she got back, (just in time to pull Alex out of the way of gnashing teeth.) There just wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Baker followed Finn, and then it was Carson. That time Kara nearly didn’t make it back in time to take a slime hit.

Three more minutes and they were down to hiding behind train cars.

Finally, Maggie’s voice came over the ear piece. “We’re ready. Get your asses up here.”

“Easier said than done,” Alex replied, glancing over at Kara leaning against the wall beside her. They were taking a much-needed breather, shielded by an overturned car while the two slugs looked for them, one at either end. The superhero looked _wrecked,_ head hanging and trembling with fatigue.

“All right, guys,” Alex sent the warning over the comms to her remaining Agents, voice pitched low to avoid alerting their slimy friends. “Can you get out if we keep them occupied?”

 Ford and Shaw replied in the affirmative.

“Then do it. We’ll follow you.”

Kara looked up. “I don’t know if I can get us out after that,” she whispered.

“I know,” Alex said softly. “Together?” she asked, reaching out her hand.

“Together,” Kara agreed, taking it. Pulling Alex close, she wrapped an arm around her waist and jumped, carrying them over the train car and setting Alex down as the slugs reared up from their search and lurched towards them.

*****

Kara barely noticed Ford and Shaw make their getaway, preoccupied with keeping herself between Alex and danger. But there were two slugs, and only one of Kara, and she and Alex ended up pinned against the wall, with a mountain of slime and teeth to either side. Ignoring her sister’s protests, Kara shoved Alex behind her, but as her strength ebbed, Kara could feel the ooze start to tingle against her skin. Soon it would burn, and then she wouldn’t be able to protect Alex at all.

She would have cheerfully sacrificed herself, but she knew darned well that Alex wouldn’t leave her.

If only she had just a little more power...

She reached deep, looking for just enough to save them, and found a pool of strength she hadn’t known was there. It was enough, but as Kara touched it, she realized why.

There was more kryptonite left in her system than she’d realized.

Maybe enough to kill her with her energy this low.

The unused power, it was keeping her alive, countering the kryptonite in perfect balance. She could burn herself out, and save Alex, but she probably wouldn’t survive the experience.

“Alex,” she said, trying to keep her voice even. “Give Maggie a five second count down.”

“Kara...” Alex gripped the back of her suit, as if to hold her back from doing something stupid, which, to be fair, from Alex’s perspective, she absolutely was going to do. “What are you doing?”

“Getting you out of here.”

Darn it, she meant to say _us._

“Kara _no!”_

The slugs slid closer, teeth bared, as if after all of this run-around they wanted to make these two deaths personal.

No time to argue.

“The count down, Alex, now!”

Alex held on tighter, dropping her forehead against Kara’s back between her shoulder blades. “Don’t do this...”

“Trust me!”

Alex choked back a sob, but Kara heard her tell Maggie to detonate in five seconds.

One

Kara gathered up the last of her power and braced herself against the sickening ache of undiluted Kryptonite.

Two

A single shot of heat vision, sweeping right to left, made the slugs rear back and filled the air with the smell of charred meat.

Three

Kara turned and scooped Alex up into her arms, holding her close as Alex wrapped her arms around her neck and buried her face against her throat.

Four

Just enough left to fly. Kara launched them over the slugs and down the tunnel, the wind whipping the tears from her eyes.

Five

They cleared the entrance just as the bombs went off, sealing the Aliens inside. With only a faint trace of power left, Kara flipped them over so that she took the brunt of the crash, cracking pavement as she slammed into the sidewalk.

And kept falling.

Into darkness and cold green oblivion

Only one sound followed her down... one heartbeat. Frantic and scared, probably furious, but so very strong.

And safe.  


	7. And Then There was Fluff...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex saves the day, Kara gets her kiss, and Winn does not get shot and buried in the desert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the last chapter!
> 
> I've had a lot of fun with this story, and I'd like to thank everyone who's left comments and kudos for welcoming me into this fandom. It's been about four years since I've really written anything, and man do I feel rusty, but all the encouragement has really helped get me back in the swing, so thank you!
> 
> Enjoy!

No.

No, no, no, no, NO!

This was NOT happening.

The force of the crash broke them apart, but Alex didn’t stay down for long. Turning the fall into a roll, she came back up onto her feet and threw herself at Kara, flipping her over and fumbling for a pulse before the last growl of the explosives had faded.

 It wasn’t there.

“No you don’t!” She snarled, lacing her fingers together and starting CPR. “You are _not_ allowed to die, do you hear me?”

Maggie and Winn were by her side in moments, Winn already on the phone with the DEO, and Maggie offering a simple “What can I do?”

“Get that van over here,” Alex said, and to Winn, “tell Hank I need a full syringe of formula B112 from my lab ready when we get there. The access code for the freezer is 03-10-26.”

By the time Maggie got back with the van, the uninjured members of Alex’s team were there to help lift Kara smoothly into the back. Alex and Winn jumped in after her, leaving the driving up to Agent Shaw. Maggie reluctantly stayed behind to monitor the site, but not before ordering Winn to send her an update on Supergirl’s condition as soon as they knew anything.

They were on their way with a squeal of tires and a sharp turn that nearly dumped Winn on his head.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked, bracing himself in the corner of the van while Alex continued CPR.

“She burned herself out,” Alex snapped. Stupid, self-sacrificing Kryptonians! If Kara lived through this, she was going to kill her.

“But... she’s done that before.”

“She didn’t have liquid kryptonite running through her veins.” Liquid kryptonite that _Alex_ had pumped her full of... speaking of stupid. “She can’t fight it with her powers drained.”

Winn gulped. “You, can fix it though, right?”

Alex breathed for her sister, feeling Kara’s mouth give softly under her own, and her chest rise and fall with borrowed air, silently begging her to hold on. Just a few more minutes... they were almost there.  

Straightening and starting another round of thirty, Alex didn’t take her eyes off Kara’s face.

“I’m going to try.”

*****

Hank was waiting with the syringe and a gurney when they pulled up to the DEO.

Alex didn’t wait to get inside. As soon as Hank had lifted Kara out of the Van and put her on the gurney, Alex climbed on top of her, straddling her hips and jamming the needle into her arm while Winn and Hank rolled them inside.

Please, please, _please_ let this work.

At first, nothing happened.

“Come on, Kara...” Alex pleaded, fingers pressed under Kara’s jaw and waiting for a pulse. “Fight, damnit!”

Ten seconds... Fifteen...

A faint tremor was the only warning Alex got before she was nearly thrown off when Kara suddenly gasped and arched underneath her, eyes wide and unseeing, back bowing off the mattress, and every muscle going rigid. She thrashed against Alex’s slight weight, twisting and bucking before lurching up, and grabbing the sides of her head. Eyes squeezed shut, and nails digging into her temples, she _screamed_.   

“It’s okay, it’s okay...” Alex soothed desperately, laying her hands over Kara’s and pressing their foreheads together. She was dimly aware that they had stopped moving, of the sounds and smells of the medical ward surrounding them, and the anxious hovering of bemused doctors, but all she cared about was her sister, and the sharp keening sounds of pain escaping from between clenched teeth.

 “I’m here,” Alex whispered into her temple, brushing back slime-tangled hair, and gripping the back of Kara’s neck to pull her closer. “I’ve got you. You’re safe now...”

Slowly, Kara’s harsh breathing eased. Her hands dropped, fingers latching briefly onto Alex’s wrists before loosening and falling into their laps. Curling forward as the tension bled out of her, she rested her head on Alex’s shoulder and leaned into her. Never really awake, she slid easily back into unconsciousness, but her heart beat steadily against Alex’s own. 

It was a brief moment of calm.

“What the heck _was_ that!?” Winn demanded, his voice rising up in volume until it cracked. He clutched at his chest, free hand waving wildly at Kara.

Hank shook his head. “While I deplore Mr. Schott’s volume, I share his curiosity. What exactly was in that syringe, Alex?”

“That was the formula I used to knock out Bizarro,” Alex explained, easing Kara back down onto the gurney, and swinging her legs over the side. She hissed as her feet hit the ground, the ankle the slugs had mauled refusing to take her weight. “Shit!”

Hank caught her elbow, supporting her while Winn grabbed a chair and they lowered her onto it.

“Thanks,” she muttered, wincing against the sudden throbbing and _not_ looking forward to pulling her boot off. “I figured, if Bizarro and Supergirl had opposite powers, and regular kryptonite made Bizarro stronger, then the modified version we made to weaken her, _should_ make Supergirl stronger.”

 “You... that was a _guess?”_ Winn was still a little overwrought.

“An educated guess,” Alex corrected him. “I kept some of the formula after we neutralized Bizarro, just in case, but it wasn’t something I was going to try unless I had to.”

“Well,” Hank clapped her on the shoulder. “Looks like you were right. Supergirl owes you her life.”

Winn just made inarticulate noises, pulling on his hair.

Alex squeezed Hank’s hand briefly in gratitude for both his strength and his approval, before turning in her chair to reach up onto the gurney and tangle her fingers with Kara’s.

“She saved mine first.”

*****

Four hours later, Kara hadn’t regained consciousness, but her vital signs were holding steady.

Alex still checked them every ten minutes, unable to really believe that she’d pulled it off. That Kara was going to be okay. They’d moved her to the sun room after the first hour, and Alex had limped along beside the gurney, refusing to leave her side, and  Ignoring Hank’s suggestion that she get cleaned up and have her own injuries attended to. Even with every sign pointing to a full recovery, Alex couldn’t quite shake the feeling that if she let Kara out of her sight, something would go wrong.

Winn brought a change of clothes, water and washcloths, and helped her get Kara de-slimed and comfortable. He closed his eyes when Alex eased her out of her mangled suit and re-dressed her, contributing by holding Alex up so she could use both her hands.

By hour six, Hank had had enough, and ordered Alex to the showers, promising to stay with Kara, and send someone running if there was any change. She might still have argued, but the expression on his face said he’d pick her up and carry her out if he had to, and Alex chose to spare herself that indignity.

Winn still had to half-carry her to the showers, his shoulder strong and steady under her arm. Trying desperately not to look, he helped her take off the rubbery black suit, easing it free of the burn on her chest where it had dried and stuck to the raw skin underneath. Her ankle was almost as bad, blistered and swollen under her boot, and there were harsh red welts across her jaw and down her throat. The rest of her injuries were superficial; new bruises to go along with the old ones, but she was stiff and sore from her long vigil, and embarrassing as it was, she could barely raise her arms over her head.

She left her bra and underwear on, more for Winn’s sake than her own. He was already turning bright red, and she didn’t want to break him. Someone had to hold her up in the shower and help her scrub away the slime, dirt and blood, and there wasn’t anyone else she felt comfortable enough with to ask.

Clean and dry, Alex mostly managed to get dressed by herself. Winn had brought her sweats and a tank top, and they were soft and warm against her skin. She would have gone straight back to the sun room, but Winn steered her to medical instead to have her wounds dressed. She hoped he was enjoying his little taste of power. As soon as she could walk by herself again, she was so kicking his ass.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go get some sleep?” He asked, lowering Alex back into her chair beside Kara’s bed once they were alone in the sun room again.

Alex shook her head. “I can’t.” She felt the corner of her mouth twist up in the ghost of a wry smile as she took Kara’s hand.  “I’ll never hear the end of it if I’m not here when she wakes up this time.”

Winn chuckled, taking the other chair. “So I won’t be getting any more panicked texts asking me if you’re mad at her?”

“About that...” Alex sent him a look that she hoped conveyed just how very busted he was.

Winn gulped. “Um... In my defense, her pout should be registered as a lethal weapon.”

Alex scoffed, but she already knew she was going to let him off the hook. “It’s okay. We... talked, actually.”

“Talked, huh?” Winn waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her, and Alex threw the pen from Kara’s chart at him, hating the fact that she was blushing.

“I take it back, I’m still going to kill you.”

“No fair!” Winn fumbled the catch, picked the pen up off the floor and threw it back. “But seriously, you talked? How did that go?”

Alex caught it neatly in her free hand and put it back.  “I’m not sure... badly, at first, but I think it was getting better, and then-”

“Slugs,” Winn finished for her.

“Slugs,” Alex agreed, making a face.

“So you’re...” He fished.

“I don’t know.” Alex shrugged, running a hand through her drying hair and pulling distractedly on the ends. “Kara doesn’t really know what she wants, and I’m worried she’ll push herself into this because she thinks it’s what _I_ want, and she feels guilty for making our whole lives about _her_.  And then someone better for her will come along, someone she doesn’t think she has to be all Supergirl and _fix_ everything for, and-”

“Hey!” Winn pulled his chair close enough to take Alex’s hand from where it was tangled in her hair and pressed it between his own. “There could never be anyone better for Kara than you. You’re probably the only person on this whole damned planet who even deserves her. James jerked her around until Lucy dumped him. I ignored her for weeks just because I couldn’t get past my own bruised feelings to see how lucky I was to have such an amazing friend. Ms. Grant left to run off on her own great adventure, Superman abandoned her on your doorstep when she was just a kid, and granted, cousin, so not the same thing, but still, and Mon El? Don’t even get me started on that guy. Now Ms. Luthor, she’s awesome...and Kara likes her, I could see that one, Ow!” Winn rubbed his shoulder where Alex had pulled her hand free and punched him.

“I’m just saying,” he continued. “You’re the clear front runner here. You’ve been there for Kara ever since she landed. She _literally_ came out of the Super closet for you. As much as you want to take care of her, and keep her safe, that’s how much she wants to keep you safe and happy too. And she can fly, so you’re not going to out-save her. Alex... Kara is more _Kara,_ with you, than she is with anyone else. And come on, you know how much she loves being Supergirl. Like, I’m pretty sure she’s collecting her own merchandise.”

“She has at least three mugs, and I think I saw a T-shirt the last time I was there,” Alex admitted.

“I know she bought a notebook and pen set last week,” Winn added.

 Alex shook her head. “What a dork.”

“Yeah...” Winn agreed, looking alarmingly sappy around the eyes. “But she’s totally _your_ dork.”

“Ugh,” Alex braced the heel of her free hand against his forehead and shoved. “That was terrible!”

Winn’s chair tipped over backwards, and he hit the floor, still snickering. “You li-ike her,” he mocked, completely unrepentant.

“I hate you.”

“You’re blushing.”

“You’re _dead!”_

*****

Kara was really getting tired of waking up in the sun bed. 

Sure, it was warm and soothing, and she could literally feel the energy sinking into her, cell by cell, filling her up with heat and light, but it could have used a little more padding. Maybe a few throw pillows. And a nice snuggly blanket.

She’d have to talk to Hank.

This time she opened her eyes slowly, letting them adjust a little bit at a time to the glare of the lights. At least she didn’t have a headache, though she felt curiously raw, as if her senses were dialled up just a bit too high. The borrowed clothes felt rough against her skin, and the room was a little too bright. Background noise buzzed in her ears like angry bees, empty sound with no form or structure.

Closing her eyes again, Kara breathed deep, focused, and tried to pull back. It was more difficult than she was used to, but gradually her control returned, until she felt comfortable in her own skin again, and the only sound she could hear was a familiar heartbeat. Slow and steady and right beside her.

Alex had fallen asleep, still sitting in her chair but half-collapsed over the sun bed with her head pillowed on her arms. The fingers of one hand were tangled loosely in the fabric of Kara’s shirt, as if, even in sleep, Alex needed to be reassured that she was still there.

Carefully, Kara rolled over, teasing her shirt free of Alex’s grip and weaving their fingers together instead. Hands clasped between them, she curled up on her side and took a minute just to study her sister.

Alex’s hair was still damp, and smelled faintly of the harsh DEO soaps, and Kara could see fresh bandages on her chest, and burns on her jaw and throat that glistened with salve. Dark circles under her eyes betrayed the fact that this was probably the first sleep Alex had allowed herself since the subway. Kara was torn between gratitude for her vigil, and guilt that she’d cost Alex the solid rest in a good bed that she so clearly needed.

Still, maybe they could make up for it... That chair couldn’t be comfortable.

Blushing faintly, but unable to resist, Kara reached out with her free hand and ran her fingers through Alex’s hair, brushing it back over her temple.

Alex wrinkled her nose, shifting and leaning into the contact. Brown eyes blinked open slowly, unfocused at first, and then laser-sharp as she came fully awake.

“Kara!” Alex nearly tipped the chair over in her haste to stand up, suddenly wincing and reclaiming her hand to brace herself against the sun bed, a rough breath drawn in through her teeth. “Damnit.”

“Alex, what?” Kara sat up, steadying her until she found her balance.

“It’s nothing,” Alex reassured her. “Wrenched my ankle, it’ll be fine in a day or two, but _you!”_ She punched Kara in the shoulder – gently. “You almost got yourself killed! If you ever pull anything like that, _ever_ again I-” She paused. “Why are you looking at me like that? I’m pissed at you!”

Kara hadn’t realized she was grinning until Alex pointed it out, but she couldn’t help it. “I _told_ you to trust me.”    

“Trust _you?”_ Alex spluttered. “You burned yourself out! _I’m_ the one who _saved_ you!”

Kara shrugged. “I know. I knew you’d figure something out. I save you, then you save me. It’s _kind_ of our thing.”

Alex gaped. “You...” she huffed, clearly unable to find a way to refute that. “ _Fine_. But I vote we find a new thing.”

Perfect.

Kara pulled her knees up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Taking one of Alex’s hands from the edge of the bed, she tugged gently, until Alex was standing in front of her, eyeing her suspiciously, but so far not offering any protest. Putting that hand back down on the bed beside her hip, Kara took the other one and placed it next to her other hip, so that she was bracketed between Alex’s arms.  Now they were nearly nose-to-nose, and Kara could hear Alex’s heartbeat speeding up. “Does that mean you’ll kiss me now?” Kara breathed, sliding her fingers around Alex’s wrists.  “Because as new things go, I think that would be a pretty great start.”

Alex’s eyes widened, and her breath caught, the hands under Kara’s tightening into fists. “Kara...”

Kara smiled, tugging her a little closer, until Alex’s hips were between her knees. “Do you want to know what my secret was?” She had remembered it just as the kryptonite pulled her under, and this time she hadn’t forgotten.

Alex nodded, lower lip caught between her teeth.

“When Cadmus shot me down, the only thing I could think of as I was falling, was you, and how much it sucked that I might never see you again, and how mad I was at Maggie, for not loving you, because If she had, then you wouldn’t be alone. And I thought, every time things get really bad, like with Reactron, and Myriad, you’re always the one it hurts the most to think about leaving. I love all of our friends and family so much, I _liked_ James but being with him just didn’t feel right, and I kind of _wanted_ to like Mon EL, because it would have made so much sense... I’ve spent so long worrying that I would never find someone to share my life with, and I think the secret is, that the reason I haven’t, is because I already have _you,_ and who could ever be better for me than you? So I decided, that if I survived, I’d tell you all of that and see if maybe you wanted to... try it? I guess? Except the drugs muddled it all up, and I just kissed you instead.” Kara ducked her head to hide her blush, looking down at her bare toes.

There was a moment of silence, and Kara worried that she’d said too much, but then Alex snorted.

“You seriously figured all of that out in the _three_ _seconds_ you were falling?” she teased. “Are you sure you haven’t been pining after me all along?”

“ _Alex..._ ” Kara whined, knocking a knee against her hip. “I’m being serious!”

“So am I, but Kara... You and me...if we’re going to try this, it has to be about more than me being your favourite person. I _know_ you’re not human, and labels like gay or straight might not matter on Krypton, but you’ve only ever dated guys, and we’ve been sisters for over twelve years. Do you even _want_ me, like that?”

Three days ago, Kara would have said no, of course not, that had been kid stuff. Two days ago, she had been confused. Even yesterday, she hadn’t been sure. But now... Kara _liked_ having Alex close to her like this. She liked the softness of Alex’s skin under her fingers, and she liked the way she felt when Alex looked at her, the way Alex was looking at her now, as if she was something precious, and not because she was Supergirl, but just because she was _Kara_.

“I really think,” Kara said, leaning in. “That you should kiss me and find out.”

“Hmm...” Alex stalled, but her eyes betrayed her, glancing down at Kara’s mouth. “If I do, do you promise to remember it this time?”

 “Promise,” Kara assured her, close enough to feel Alex’s breath on her lips.

“Then I guess I have no other choice,” Alex murmured, meeting her halfway.

The kiss started out a little awkward, both of them tense, and each one expecting the other to take the lead, but then Alex tilted her head and opened her mouth against Kara’s, letting just the tip of her tongue graze Kara’s lower lip, and it clicked.

Kara realized now why kissing James hadn’t felt right... because it hadn’t felt like _this_! Like the wind in her hair, and ocean spray on her skin. Like flying, and falling, and a little like fighting; not the rage part, but the rush... the joy of pushing herself to her limits, no holding back.  

Eager for more, Kara slid her hands up Alex’s arms, raising them up to tangle in her hair and pull Alex closer. Alex responded by deepening the kiss, tentatively exploring Kara’s mouth with lips and tongue and a little bit of teeth, until Kara whimpered.

Easing back, Alex took a deep breath and rested their foreheads together. She was almost panting, her heart slamming against her chest. “Well?” she asked.

“Not sure yet...” Kara took one of Alex’s hands and pressed it to her waist, sighing happily when Alex slipped her fingers up under the edge of her tank top, gently stroking her skin in a way that made Kara _ache._ “Maybe one more.”

Chuckling Alex gave her a soft, close-mouthed kiss, pulling back before Kara could respond.

Kara pouted. “No fair.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Answer the question.”      

“Fine...” Kara sighed. “I _like,_ like you, Alex. I think you’re dreamy, and I want to go steady and wear your DEO jacket to all the dances-“

Alex cut her off with another kiss. “That’s it, I’m never watching Grease with you again.”

Kara giggled, burying her face against Alex’s neck and pressing little kisses against her skin. “Nuh-uh, I have girlfriend privileges now, I get to pick _all_ the movies.”

Alex keened softly when Kara’s teeth grazed against her pulse point. “I can see a slight flaw in your logic there...”

Kara shrugged. “Do you really want to argue about who gets to be the girl?” she asked in her best, I have a lethal pout, and I know how to use it, voice. “Or do you want to get your butt up here and cuddle?”

Alex gave her a look like this conversation wasn’t over, but she let Kara pull her up onto the bed. They took a few minutes to arrange themselves in the narrow space, ending up with Kara on her back, and Alex curled up against her, with her head on Kara’s chest, and an arm around her waist. Her heartbeat had evened out, and she felt warm and soft against Kara’s side.

“Sleep,” Kara urged, curling her arm over Alex’s shoulder and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

Alex murmured a drowsy protest, but her eyes were already falling shut. Within moments she was asleep, and Kara soon followed, lulled by their combined warmth, and the feeling, new and soft, and somehow both fragile and so powerful it made her shiver, that whatever else they were to each other, and always would be, _this..._ this was what they were meant for.

And nothing, not Cadmus, or rogue Aliens, or natural disasters, was ever going to take it away from them.

*****

Winn closed the door to the sun room gently, careful not to wake the two women curled up together on the bed. He’d come back with Coffee after his nap, thinking Alex could use the caffeine and the company, only to find... well... that.

Jealousy came and went. He wasn’t exactly _over_ Kara... he wasn’t sure anyone could ever really be over her, but he valued their friendship too much to be anything other than thrilled that she’d found someone. And Alex deserved everything Kara could give her.

Humming happily to himself, Winn set out to find Hank. He’d offer him Alex’s coffee, and maybe mention that it would be better if he steered clear of the sun room for the next eight hours or so. Just to be safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... that's it! 
> 
> For now. 
> 
> I am considering a sequel... maybe a full story, or maybe a series of one shots in chronological order, "first _______" and "_______ finds out" etc. 
> 
> Let me know if either of those are something you all would be interested in. Feel free message me, or to put future scene suggestions in the comments, or just hit that Kudos button, so I know you're out there and want to read more about these two crazy sisters. :)


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